Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
was, making a funeral oration in the praise of Caesar, and
finding the multitude moved with his speech, passing into the
pathetic tone, unfolded the bloody garment of Caesar, showed
them in how many places it was pierced, and the number of his
wounds. Now there was nothing to be seen but confusion; some
cried out to kill the murderers, others (as was formerly done
when Clodius led the people) tore away the benches and tables
out of the shops round about, and, heaping them all together,
built a great funeral pile, and, having put the body of Caesar
upon it, set it on fire, the spot where this was done being
moreover surrounded with a great many temples and other
consecrated places, so that they seemed to burn the body in a
kind of sacred solemnity. As soon as the fire flamed out, the
multitude, flocking in some from one part and some from another,
snatched the brands that were half burnt out of the pile, and
ran about the city to fire the houses of the murderers of
Caesar. But they, having beforehand well fortified themselves,
repelled this danger.
There was however a kind of poet, one Cinna, not at all
concerned in the guilt of the conspiracy, but on the contrary
one of Caesar's friends. This man dreamed that he was invited
to supper by Caesar, and that he declined to go, but that Caesar
entreated and pressed him to it very earnestly; and at last,
taking him by the hand, led him into a very deep and dark place,
whither he was forced against his will to follow in great
consternation and amazement. After this vision, he had a fever
the most part of the night; nevertheless in the morning, hearing
that the body of Caesar was to be carried forth to be interred,
he was ashamed not to be present at the solemnity, and came
abroad and joined the people, when they were already infuriated
by the speech of Antony. And perceiving him, and taking him not
for that Cinna who indeed he was, but for him that a little
before in a speech to the people had reproached and inveighed
against Caesar, they fell upon him and tore him to pieces.
This action chiefly, and the alteration that Antony had wrought,
so alarmed Brutus and his party, that for their safety they
retired from the city. The first stay they made was at Antium,
with a design to return again as soon as the fury of the people
had spent itself and was abated, which they expected would soon
and easily come to pass in an unsettled multitude, apt to be
carried away with any sudden and impetuous passion, especially
since they had the senate favorable to them; which, though it
took no notice of those that had torn Cinna to pieces, yet made
a strict search and apprehended in order to punishment those
that had assaulted the houses of the friends of Brutus and
Cassius. By this time, also, the people began to be
dissatisfied with Antony, who they perceived was setting up a
kind of monarchy for himself; they longed for the return of
Brutus, whose presence they expected and hoped for at the games
and spectacles which he, as praetor, was to exhibit to the
public. But he, having intelligence that many of the old
soldiers that had borne arms under Caesar, by whom they had had
lands and cities given them, lay in wait for him, and by small
parties at a time had stolen into the city, would not venture to
come himself; however, in his absence there were most
magnificent and costly shows exhibited to the people; for,
having bought up a great number of all sorts of wild beasts, he
gave order that not any of them should be returned or saved, but
that all should be spent freely at the public spectacles. He
himself made a journey to Naples to procure a considerable
number of players, and hearing of one Canutius, that was very
much praised for his acting upon the stage, he wrote to his
friends to use all their entreaties to bring him to Rome (for,
being a Grecian, he could not be compelled); he wrote also to
Cicero, begging him by no means to omit being present at the
shows.
This was the posture of affairs when another sudden alteration
was made upon the young Caesar's coming to Rome. He was son to
the niece of Caesar, who adopted him, and left him his heir by
his will. At the time when Caesar was killed, he was following
his studies at Apollonia, where he was expecting also to meet
Caesar on his way to the expedition which he had determined on
against the Parthians; but, hearing of his death, he immediately
came to Rome, and, to ingratiate himself with the people, taking
upon himself the name of Caesar, and punctually distributing
among the citizens the money that was left them by the will, he
soon got the better of Antony; and by money and largesses, which
he liberally dispersed amongst the soldiers, he gathered
together and brought over to his party a great number of those
that had served under Caesar. Cicero himself, out of the hatred
which he bore to Antony, sided with young Caesar; which Brutus
took so ill that he treated with him very sharply in his
letters, telling him, that he perceived Cicero could well enough
endure a tyrant, but was afraid that he who hated him should be
the man; that in writing and speaking so well of Caesar, he
showed that his aim was to have an easy slavery. "But our
forefathers," said Brutus, "could not brook even gentle
masters." Further he added, that for his own part he had not as
yet fully resolved whether he should make war or peace; but that
as to one point he was fixed and settled, which was, never to be
a slave; that he wondered Cicero should fear the dangers of a
civil war, and not be much more afraid of a dishonorable and
infamous peace; that the very reward that was to be given him
for subverting Antony's tyranny was the privilege of
establishing Caesar as tyrant in his place. This is the tone of
Brutus's first letters to Cicero.
The city being now divided into two factions, some betaking
themselves to Caesar and others to Antony, the soldiers selling
themselves, as it were, by public outcry, and going over to him
that would give them most, Brutus began to despair of any good
event of such proceedings, and, resolving to leave Italy, passed
by land through Lucania and came to Elea by the seaside. From
hence it was thought convenient that Porcia should return to
Rome. She was overcome with grief to part from Brutus, but
strove as much as was possible to conceal it; but, in spite of
all her constancy, a picture which she found there accidentally
betrayed it. It was a Greek subject, Hector parting from
Andromache when he went to engage the Greeks, giving his young
son Astyanax into her arms, and she fixing her eyes upon him.
When she looked at this piece, the resemblance it bore to her
own condition made her burst into tears, and several times a day
she went to see the picture, and wept before it. Upon this
occasion, when Acilius, one of Brutus's friends, repeated out of
Homer the verses, where Andromache speaks to Hector: --
But Hector, you
To me are father and are mother too,
My brother, and my loving husband true.
Brutus, smiling, replied, "But I must not answer Porcia, as
Hector did Andromache,
'Mind you your loom, and to your maids give law.'
For though the natural weakness of her body hinders her from
doing what only the strength of men can perform, yet she has a
mind as valiant and as active for the good of her country as the
best of us." This narrative is in the memoirs of Brutus written
by Bibulus, Porcia's son.
Brutus took ship from hence, and sailed to Athens where he was
received by the people with great demonstrations of kindness,
expressed in their acclamations and the honors that were decreed
him. He lived there with a private friend, and was a constant
auditor of Theomnestus the Academic and Cratippus the
Peripatetic, with whom he so engaged in philosophical pursuits,
that he seemed to have laid aside all thoughts of public
business, and to be wholly at leisure for study. But all this
while, being unsuspected, he was secretly making preparation for
war; in order to which he sent Herostratus into Macedonia to
secure the commanders there to his side, and he himself won over
and kept at his disposal all the young Romans that were then
students at Athens. Of this number was Cicero's son, whom he
everywhere highly extols, and says that whether sleeping or
waking he could not choose but admire a young man of so great a
spirit and such a hater of tyranny.
At length he began to act openly, and to appear in public
business, and, being informed that there were several Roman
ships full of treasure that in their course from Asia were to
come that way, and that they were commanded by one of his
friends, he went to meet him about Carystus. Finding him there,
and having persuaded him to deliver up the ships, he made a more
than usually splendid entertainment, for it happened also to be
his birthday. Now when they came to drink, and were filling
their cups with hopes for victory to Brutus and liberty to Rome,
Brutus, to animate them the more, called for a larger bowl, and
holding it in his hand, on a sudden upon no occasion or
forethought pronounced aloud this verse: --
But fate my death and Leto's son have wrought.
And some writers add that in the last battle which he fought at
Philippi the word that he gave to his soldiers was Apollo, and
from thence conclude that this sudden unaccountable exclamation
of his was a presage of the overthrow that he suffered there.
Antistius, the commander of these ships, at his parting gave him
fifty thousand myriads of the money that he was conveying to
Italy; and all the soldiers yet remaining of Pompey's army, who
after their general's defeat wandered about Thessaly, readily
and joyfully flocked together to join him. Besides this, he
took from Cinna five hundred horse that he was carrying to
Dolabella into Asia. After that, he sailed to Demetrias, and
there seized a great quantity of arms, that had been provided by
the command of the deceased Caesar for the Parthian war, and
were now to be sent to Antony. Then Macedonia was put into his
hands and delivered up by Hortensius the praetor, and all the
kings and potentates round about came and offered their
services. So when news was brought that Caius, the brother of
Antony, having passed over from Italy, was marching on directly
to join the forces that Vatinius commanded in Dyrrhachium and
Apollonia, Brutus resolved to anticipate him, and to seize them
first, and in all haste moved forwards with those that he had
about him. His march was very difficult, through rugged places
and in a great snow, but so swift that he left those that were
to bring his provisions for the morning meal a great way behind.
And now, being very near to Dyrrhachium, with fatigue and cold
he fell into the distemper called Bulimia. This is a disease
that seizes both men and cattle after much labor, and especially
in a great snow; whether it is caused by the natural heat, when
the body is seized with cold, being forced all inwards, and
consuming at once all the nourishment laid in, or whether the
sharp and subtle vapor which comes from the snow as it
dissolves, cuts the body, as it were, and destroys the heat
which issues through the pores; for the sweatings seem to arise
from the heat meeting with the cold, and being quenched by it on
the surface of the body. But this I have in another place
discussed more at large.
Brutus growing very faint, and there being none in the whole
army that had anything for him to eat, his servants were forced
to have recourse to the enemy, and, going as far as to the gates
of the city, begged bread of the sentinels that were upon duty.
As soon as they heard of the condition of Brutus, they came
themselves, and brought both meat and drink along with them; in