hostility to Caesar from the start, to attack the leader, who had
nevertheless shown himself later his benefactor. He was also influenced
by the fact that he was, as I stated, both nephew and son-in-law of Cato
of Utica so-called. And his wife Portia was the only woman, as they say,
who had knowledge of the plot. She encountered him in the midst of his
meditation upon these very matters and enquired in what he was so
absorbed. When he made no answer, she suspected that she was distrusted
on account of physical weakness, for fear she should reveal something
even unwillingly under torture; hence she performed a noteworthy deed.
She secretly inflicted a deep wound in her thigh to test herself and see
if she could endure painful treatment. And when she found herself not
overdistressed, she despised the wound, and came to him and said: "You,
my husband, though you trusted that my spirit would not utter a secret,
nevertheless were distrustful of my body, and you acted in accordance
with human reason. But I have found that I can make even it keep
silence." Having said this she disclosed her thigh and after making
known the reason for what she had done, said: "Tell me boldly now all
that you are concealing, for to make me speak fire, lashes, and goads
shall alike be powerless. I was not born that kind of woman. Therefore
if you shall still distrust me, it is better for me to die than live. If
such be the case, let no one think me longer the daughter of Cato or
your wife." Hearing this Brutus marveled; and he no longer hid anything
from her but felt strengthened himself and related to her the whole
story. [-14-] After this he obtained as an associate also Gaius Cassius,
who had himself been preserved by Caesar and moreover honored with a
praetorship; he was the husband of Brutus's sister. Next they proceeded
to gather those who were of the same mind as themselves, and these
proved to be not few in number. There is no need of my giving a list of
most of the names, for I might thus become wearisome, but I cannot omit
Trebonius and Decimus Brutus, whom they also named Junius and Albinus.
For these joined in the plot against Caesar though they also had been
greatly benefited by him,--Decimus having been appointed consul for the
second year and assigned to Hither Gaul.
[-15-] They came very near being detected by reason of the number of
those concerned and by their delay. Caesar, however, would not receive
any information about such an undertaking and punished very severely
those who brought any news of the kind. Still, they stood in awe of him
and put the matter off, fearing that although he had no guard they might
be killed by the persons surrounding him at various times; and thus they
ran the risk of being discovered and perishing. Indeed, they would have
suffered this fate, had they not been forced even against their will to
hasten the plot. A report went abroad, true or false after the manner of
reports, that the so-called fifteen priests were declaring that the
Sibyl had said the Parthians should never be captured in any other way
than by a king, and the people were consequently preparing to propose
that this title be granted to Caesar. The conspirators believed this to
be true, and because a vote would be demanded of the officials, among
whom were Brutus and Cassius, owing to the seriousness of the measure,
they felt that they neither dared to oppose it nor could submit to keep
silent, and so hurried on the consummation of the plot before any
business connected with the measure could come up.
[-16-] It had been decided by them to make the attempt in the senate,
for they thought that there Caesar would least expect to be harmed in any
way and would so fall an easier victim, while they would possess
opportunity coupled with security by having their swords instead of
documents brought in boxes, and that the rest being unarmed would be
unable to make any resistance. In case any one should be so rash, they
expected at least that the gladiators, many of whom they had previously
stationed in Pompey's Theatre under the pretext that they were to
practice with arms, would assist them. These were to lie in wait there
in a certain room of the peristyle. The conspirators, when the appointed
day had come, gathered in the senate-hall at dawn and called for Caesar.
[-17-] As for him, he was warned of the plot in advance by the
soothsayers, and was warned also by dreams. The night before he was
slain his wife had a vision of their house fallen in ruins, her husband
wounded by some men and taking refuge in her bosom, and of Caesar being
raised aloft upon the clouds and grasping the hand of Jupiter. Moreover
omens not few nor indistinct crossed his path. The arms of Mars, at that
time deposited at his house by virtue of his position as high priest and
by ancestral custom, made a great noise at night, and the doors of the
chamber where he slept opened of their own accord. The sacrifices which
he offered because of these occurrences indicated nothing favorable and
the birds with which he practiced divination forbade him to leave the
house. After his assassination, finally, some recalled a weighty
incident in connection with his gilded chair,--that the servant, as
Caesar was slow in coming, carried it out of the senate, thinking that he
would have no further need of it.
[-18-] Caesar for this reason was so long in coming that the conspirators
feared there might be a postponement (a rumor circulated, indeed, that
he would remain at home that day), and their plot thus fall through and
they themselves be detected. Therefore they sent Decimus Brutus, as one
appearing to be a devoted friend, to secure his attendance. This man
made light of Caesar's scruples and by adding that the senate was
extremely anxious to behold him, persuaded him to go forward. At this an
image of his which he kept set up in the vestibule fell of its own
accord and was shattered to pieces. He ought then to have changed his
purpose, but instead he paid no attention to this and would not listen
to some one who was giving him information of the plot. He received from
him a little roll in which all the preparations made for the attack had
been accurately inscribed, but did not read it, thinking that it was
some other not very pressing matter. In brief, he was so confident that
to the soothsayer who had warned him to beware of that day he said
jokingly: "Where are your prophecies? Don't you see that the day over
which you were all of a tremble is here and I am alive?" And the other,
they say, answered only this: "Yes, it is here, but not yet gone."
[-19-] Now when he finally reached the senate Trebonius delayed Antony
somewhere at a distance outside. They had planned to kill both him and
Lepidus. But fearing that they might be ill spoken of as a result of the
number of those destroyed, and that it might be said that they had slain
Caesar to gain power and not to free the city, as they pretended, they
did not wish Antony even to be present at his slaughter. As for Lepidus,
he had set out on a campaign and was in the suburbs. Antony was held by
Trebonius in conversation. Meanwhile the rest in a body surrounded Caesar
(he was as easy of access and ready to be addressed as any one could
have wished), and some talked among themselves, while others presented
petitions to him, so that suspicion might be as far from his mind as
possible. When the right moment came, one of them approached him as if
to express his thanks for some favor or other and pulled his cloak from
his shoulder; for this, according to the agreement, served to the
conspirators as a signal raised. Thereupon they attacked him from many
sides at once and wounded him to death, so that by reason of their
numbers Caesar was unable to say or do anything, but veiling his face was
slain with many wounds. This is the truest account. In times past some
have made a declaration like this, that to Brutus who struck him
severely he said: "Thou, too, my child?"
[-20-] A great outcry naturally arose from all the rest who were inside
and who were standing nearby outside at the suddenness of the event and
because they were not acquainted with the slayers, their numbers, or
their intention; and all were thrown into confusion, believing
themselves in danger; so they themselves started in flight by whatever
way each man could, and they alarmed those who met them by saying
nothing definite, but merely shouting out these words: "Run, bolt doors!
Run, bolt doors!" The rest, taking it up from one another as each one
echoed the cries, filled the city with lamentations, and they burst into
shops and houses to hide themselves. Yet the assassins hurried just as
they were to the Forum, indicating both by their gestures and their
shouts not to be afraid. At the same time that they said this they
called continuously for Cicero: but the crowd did not believe that they
were sincere, and was not easily calmed. Late in the day at last they
gradually began to take courage and became quiet, as no one was killed
or arrested. [-21-] When they met in the assembly the assassins had much
to say against Caesar and much in favor of the democracy, and they bade
the people take courage and not expect any harm. They had killed him,
they declared, not to secure power or any other advantage, but in order
that they might be free and independent and be governed rightly. By
speaking such words they calmed the majority, especially since they
injured no one. Fearing for all that that somebody might concert
measures against them the conspirators ascended the Capitoline with the
avowed intention of offering prayer to the gods, and there they spent
the day and night. And at evening they were joined by some of the other
prominent men who had not shared in the plot, but were anxious, when
they saw the perpetrators praised, to secure the glory of it, as well as
the prizes which those concerned expected. With great justice the affair
happened to turn out the opposite way: they did not secure any
reputation for the deed because they had not been partakers of it in any
way, but they shared the danger which fell upon the ones who committed
it just as much as if they themselves had been the plotters.
[-22-] Seeing this, Dolabella likewise did not see fit to keep quiet,
but entered upon the consular office though it did not yet belong to
him, and after a short speech to the people on the situation ascended
the Capitol. While affairs were in this condition Lepidus, learning what
had taken place, by night occupied the Forum with his soldiers and at
dawn delivered a speech against the assassins. Antony immediately after
Caesar's death had fled, casting away his robe of office in order to
escape notice, and had concealed himself through the night. When,
however, he ascertained that the assassins were on the Capitol and
Lepidus in the Forum, he assembled the senate in the precinct of Tellus
and brought forward the business of the hour for deliberation. Some said
one thing, some another, as each of them thought about it: Cicero, whose
advice they followed, spoke to this effect:--
[-23-] "On every occasion I think no one ought to say anything merely
for the sake of winning favor or to show his spite, but to reveal just
what the man in each case thinks to be the best. We demand that those
who are praetors or consuls shall do everything from upright motives, and
if they make any errors we demand an account from them even if their
slip was accidental; and it will be unbearable if in debates, where we
are complete masters of our own opinion, we shall abandon the common
welfare with a view to private advantage. For this reason, Conscript
Fathers, I have always thought that I ought to advise you on all matters
with simplicity and justice, but especially under the present
circumstances, when, if without being over-captious we come to an
agreement, we shall be preserved ourselves and enable all the rest to
survive, but if we wish to examine everything minutely, I fear ill
fortune--but at the very opening of my address I do not wish to say
anything displeasing. [-24-] Formerly, not very long ago, those who had
arms usually also got control of the government and consequently issued
orders to you as to the subjects on which you must deliberate, but you
could not look forward and see what it was proper for them to do. But
now practically all conditions are so favorably placed that the matter
is in your hands and the responsibility rests upon you; and from your
own selves you may obtain either concord and with it liberty, or
seditions and civil wars again and a master at the close of them.
Whatever you decide to-day all the rest will follow. This being the
state of the case as I see it, I declare that you ought to abandon your
mutual enmities or jealousies or whatever name should be applied to
them, and return to that ancient condition of peace and friendship and
harmony. For you should remember this, if nothing else, that so long as
we enjoyed that kind of government, we acquired lands, fortunes, glory
and allies, but ever since we were led into abusing one another, so far
from growing better we have become decidedly worse off. I am so firmly
convinced that nothing else at present could save the city that if we do
not to-day, at once, with all possible speed, adopt some policy, we
shall never be able to regain our position.
[-25-] "Notice carefully that I am speaking only the truth, of which you
may convince yourselves if you regard present conditions and then
consider our position in old times. Do you not see what is taking
place,--that the populace is again being divided and torn asunder and
that, some choosing this side, and some that, they have already fallen
into two parties and two camps, that the one side has taken timely
possession of the Capitol as if they feared the Gauls or somebody, and
the other side with headquarters in the Forum is preparing to besiege
them and so behaving like Carthaginians, and not as though they too were
Romans? Do you not hear that though formerly citizens often differed,
even to the extent of occupying the Aventine once, and the Capitol, and
some of them the Sacred Mount, as often as they were reconciled one with
another on equal terms (or by yielding but a small point) they at once
stopped hating one another, to live the rest of their lives in such
peace and harmony that in common they carried through successfully many
great wars? As often, on the other hand, as they had recourse to murders
and assassinations, the one side deceived by the justification of
defending themselves against the encroachments of the other, and the
other side by an ambition to appear to be inferior to none, no good ever
came of it. Why need I waste time by repeating to you, who know them
equally well, the names of Valerius, Horatius, Saturninus, Glaucia, the
Gracchi? With such examples before you, not of foreign origin but native
to this land, do not hesitate to strive after the right course and guard
against the wrong. Having from the events of history received a proof of
the outcome of the situation on which you are deliberating, regard my
exhortation no longer as mere words but believe that the welfare of the
community is at stake this instant. Do not for any doubtful theory cast
away the certainty of hope, but trusting to a reliable pledge secure in
advance a sure result for your calculations.
[-26-] "It is in your power, if you receive this evidence that I
mentioned from your own land and your own ancestors, to decide rightly.
And this is why I did not wish to cite instances from abroad, though I
might have mentioned countless of them. One instance, nevertheless, I
will offer from the best and most ancient city from which our fathers
did not disdain to introduce certain laws; for it would be a disgrace
for us who so far surpass the Athenians in strength and sense, to
deliberate less well than they. They were once--of course you all know
this--at variance, and as a result were overcome in war by the
Lacedaemonians and endured a tyranny of the more powerful citizens; and
they did not obtain a respite from evils until they made a compact and
agreement to forget their past injuries, though many and severe, and
never to allow a single reproach because of them or to bear malice
against any one. Now when they had attained such a degree of wisdom,
they not only ceased enduring tyrannies and seditions, but flourished in
every way, regaining their city, laying claim to the sovereignty of the
Greeks, and finally becoming powerful enough to decide frequently on the
preservation or destruction both of the Lacedaemonians themselves and of
the Thebans. Now notice, that if those men who seized Phyle and came
home from the Peirseus had chosen to take vengeance on the city party
for wrongs suffered, they would, to be sure, have seemed to have
performed a justifiable action, but they would have undergone, as well
as have caused, many evils. Just as they exceeded their hopes by
defeating their foes, they might perhaps themselves have been in turn
unexpectedly worsted. [-27-] In such matters there is nothing sure, and
one does not necessarily gain the mastery as a result of being strong,
but vast numbers who were confident have failed and vast numbers who
were looking to defeat somebody have perished before they could strike.
The party that is overreached in any transaction is not bound to be
fortunate just because it is wronged, nor is the party which has the
greater power bound to be successful just because it surpasses, but both
are equally subservient to human uncertainty and the mutability of
fortune, and the issue they secure is often not in accordance with the
favorable prognostications of the one side, but proves to be what the
other actually dared not expect. As a result of this, and of intense
rivalry (for man is strongly given when wronged or believing himself
wronged to become beyond measure bold) many are on many occasions
inspired to undergo dangers even beyond their strength, with the
determination to conquer or at least not to perish utterly without
having shed some blood. So it is that partly conquering and partly
defeated, sometimes gaining the mastery over others and again falling
prostrate themselves, some are altogether annihilated and others gain a
Cadmean victory, as it is called, and at a time when the knowledge can
avail them nothing they perceive that their plans were ill drawn.
[-28-] "That this is so you also have learned by experience. Consider,
Marius for some time had power in seditions; then he was driven out,
collected a force, and accomplished what you know. Likewise Sulla--not
to speak of Cinna or Strabo or the rest who intervene--influential at
first, then subdued, then making himself ruler, authorized every
possible terrible severity."
After that Lepidus, evidently with the intention of following in their
footsteps, instituted a kind of sedition of his own and stirred nearly
the whole of Italy. When we at last got rid of him too, remember what we
suffered from Sertorius and from the exiles with him. What did Pompey,
what did this Caesar himself do?--not to mention here Catiline or
Clodius. Did they not at first fight against each other, and that in
spite of their relationship, and then fill full of countless evils not
only our own city or even the rest of Italy, but practically the entire
world? Well, after Pompey's death and that great destruction of the
citizens, did any quiet appear? Whence could it? By no means. Africa
knows, Spain knows the multitudes who perished in each of those lands.
What then? Did we have peace after this? How is it possible, when Caesar
himself lies slain in this fashion, the Capitol is occupied, all through
the Forum arms are seen, and throughout the city fear exists? [-29-] In
this way, when men begin a seditious career and seek ever to repay
violence with violence and inflict vengeance without care for propriety,
without care for human limitations, but according to their desires and
the power that arms give them, there necessarily arises in each such
case a kind of circle of ills, and alternate requitals of outrages take
place. The fortunate party abounds in insolence and sets no limits to
the advantage it may take, and the party that is crushed, if it does not
perish immediately, rages at the disaster and is eager to take vengeance
on the oppressor, until it sate its wrath. Then the remainder of the
multitude, even if it has not been previously involved in the
transactions, now through pity of the beaten and envy of the victorious
side, coöperates with the former, fearing that it may suffer the same
evils as the downtrodden element and hoping that it may win the same
success as the force temporarily in the ascendant. Thus the portion of
the citizens that is not concerned is brought into the dispute and one
class takes the evil up against another, through pretence of avenging
the side which is for the moment at a disadvantage, as if they were
repelling a regular, everyday danger; and individually they free
themselves from it, but they ruin the community in every way. [-30-] Do
you not see how much time we have lost in fighting one another, how many
great evils we have endured meanwhile, and, what is worse than that,
inflicted? And who could count the vast mass of money of which we have
stripped our allies and robbed the gods, which furthermore we have
contributed ourselves from what we did not possess, and then expended it
against one another? Or who could number the mass of men that have been
lost, not only of ordinary persons (that is beyond computation) but of
knights and senators, each one of whom was able in foreign wars to
preserve the whole city by his life and death? How many Curtii, how many
Decii, Fabii, Gracchi, Marcelli, Scipiones have been killed? Not, by
Jupiter, to repel Samnites or Latins or Spaniards or Carthaginians, but
only to perish themselves in the end. And for those under arms who died,
no matter how deep sorrow one might feel for them, there is less reason
to lament. They entered the battles as volunteers, if it is proper to
call volunteers men compelled by fear, and they met even if an unjust at
least a brave death, in an equal struggle; and in the hope that they
might even survive and conquer they fell without grieving. But how might
one mourn as they deserve those who were pitiably destroyed in their
houses, in the roads, in the Forum, in the senate-chamber even, on the
Capitol even, by violence--not only men but also women, not only those
in their prime, but also old men and children? And after subjecting one
another to so many of these reprisals of such a nature as all our
enemies put together never inflicted upon us (nor were we ever the
authors of anything similar to them), so far from loathing such acts and
manfully wishing to have done with them, we rejoice and hold festivals
and term those who are guilty of them benefactors. Honestly, I cannot
deem this life that we have been leading human; it is rather that of
wild beasts which are consumed by one another.