Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
return for which, Brutus, when he took the city, showed the
greatest kindness, not to them only, but to all the inhabitants,
for their sakes. Caius Antonius, in the meantime, coming to
Apollonia, summoned all the soldiers that were near that city to
join him there; but finding that they nevertheless went all to
Brutus, and suspecting that even those of Apollonia were
inclined to the same party, he quitted that city, and came to
Buthrotum, having first lost three cohorts of his men, that in
their march thither were cut to pieces by Brutus. After this,
attempting to make himself master of some strong places about
Byllis which the enemy had first seized, he was overcome in a
set battle by young Cicero, to whom Brutus gave the command, and
whose conduct he made use of often and with much success. Caius
himself was surprised in a marshy place, at a distance from his
supports; and Brutus, having him in his power, would not suffer
his soldiers to attack, but maneuvering about the enemy with his
horse, gave command that none of them should be killed, for that
in a little time they would all be of his side; which
accordingly came to pass, for they surrendered both themselves
and their general. So that Brutus had by this time a very great
and considerable army. He showed all marks of honor and esteem
to Caius for a long time, and left him the use of the ensigns of
his office, though, as some report, he had several letters from
Rome, and particularly from Cicero, advising him to put him to
death. But at last, perceiving that he began to corrupt his
officers, and was trying to raise a mutiny amongst the soldiers,
he put him aboard a ship and kept him close prisoner. In the
meantime the soldiers that had been corrupted by Caius retired
to Apollonia, and sent word to Brutus, desiring him to come to
them thither. He answered that this was not the custom of the
Romans, but that it became those who had offended to come
themselves to their general and beg forgiveness of their
offences; which they did, and accordingly received their pardon.
As he was preparing to pass into Asia, tidings reached him of
the alteration that had happened at Rome; where the young
Caesar, assisted by the senate, in opposition to Antony, and
having driven his competitor out of Italy, had begun himself to
be very formidable, suing for the consulship contrary to law,
and maintaining large bodies of troops of which the commonwealth
had no manner of need. And then, perceiving that the senate,
dissatisfied with his proceedings, began to cast their eyes
abroad upon Brutus, and decreed and confirmed the government of
several provinces to him, he had taken the alarm. Therefore
dispatching messengers to Antony, he desired that there might be
a reconciliation, and a friendship between them. Then, drawing
all his forces about the city, he made himself be chosen consul,
though he was but a boy, being scarce twenty years old, as he
himself writes in his memoirs. At his first entry upon the
consulship he immediately ordered a judicial process to be
issued out against Brutus and his accomplices for having
murdered a principal man of the city, holding the highest
magistracies of Rome, without being heard or condemned; and
appointed Lucius Cornificius to accuse Brutus, and Marcus
Agrippa to accuse Cassius. None appearing to the accusation,
the judges were forced to pass sentence and condemn them both.
It is reported, that when the crier from the tribunal, as the
custom was, with a loud voice cited Brutus to appear, the people
groaned audibly, and the noble citizens hung down their heads
for grief. Publius Silicius was seen to burst out into tears,
which was the cause that not long after he was put down in the
list of those that were proscribed. After this, the three men,
Caesar, Antony, and Lepidus, being perfectly reconciled, shared
the provinces among themselves, and made up the catalogue of
proscription, wherein were set those that were designed for
slaughter, amounting to two hundred men, in which number Cicero
was slain.
This news being brought to Brutus in Macedonia, he was under a
compulsion, and sent orders to Hortensius that he should kill
Caius Antonius in revenge of the death of Cicero his friend, and
Brutus his kinsman, who also was proscribed and slain. Upon
this account it was that Antony, having afterwards taken
Hortensius in the battle of Philippi, slew him upon his
brother's tomb. But Brutus expresses himself as more ashamed
for the cause of Cicero's death than grieved for the misfortune
of it, and says he cannot help accusing his friends at Rome,
that they were slaves more through their own doing than that of
those who now were their tyrants; they could be present and see
and yet suffer those things which even to hear related ought to
them to have been insufferable.
Having made his army, that was already very considerable, pass
into Asia, he ordered a fleet to be prepared in Bithynia and
about Cyzicus. But going himself through the country by land,
he made it his business to settle and confirm all the cities,
and gave audience to the princes of the parts through which he
passed. And he sent orders into Syria to Cassius to come to
him, and leave his intended journey into Egypt; letting him
understand, that it was not to gain an empire for themselves,
but to free their country, that they went thus wandering about
and had got an army together whose business it was to destroy
the tyrants; that therefore, if they remembered and resolved to
persevere in their first purpose, they ought not to be too far
from Italy, but make what haste they could thither, and endeavor
to relieve their fellow-citizens from oppression.
Cassius obeyed his summons, and returned, and Brutus went to
meet him; and at Smyrna they met, which was the first time they
had seen one another since they parted at the Piraeus in Athens,
one for Syria, and the other for Macedonia. They were both
extremely joyful and had great confidence of their success at
the sight of the forces that each of them had got together,
since they who had fled from Italy, like the most despicable
exiles, without money, without arms, without a ship or a soldier
or a city to rely on, in a little time after had met together so
well furnished with shipping and money, and an army both of
horse and foot, that they were in a condition to contend for the
empire of Rome.
Cassius was desirous to show no less respect and honor to Brutus
than Brutus did to him; but Brutus was still beforehand with
him, coming for the most part to him, both because he was the
elder man, and of a weaker constitution than himself. Men
generally reckoned Cassius a very expert soldier, but of a harsh
and angry nature, and one that desired to command rather by fear
than love; though, on the other side, among his familiar
acquaintance he would easily give way to jesting, and play the
buffoon. But Brutus, for his virtue, was esteemed by the
people, beloved by his friends, admired by the best men, and
hated not by his enemies themselves. For he was a man of a
singularly gentle nature, of a great spirit, insensible of the
passions of anger or pleasure or covetousness; steady and
inflexible to maintain his purpose for what he thought right and
honest. And that which gained him the greatest affection and
reputation was the entire faith in his intentions. For it had
not ever been supposed that Pompey the Great himself, if he had
overcome Caesar, would have submitted his power to the laws,
instead of taking the management of the state upon himself,
soothing the people with the specious name of consul or
dictator, or some other milder title than king. And they were
well persuaded that Cassius, being a man governed by anger and
passion and carried often, for his interest's sake, beyond the
bounce of justice, endured all these hardships of war and travel
and danger most assuredly to obtain dominion to himself, and not
liberty to the people. And as for the former disturbers of the
peace of Rome, whether a Cinna, a Marius, or a Carbo, it is
manifest that they, having set their country as a stake for him
that should win, did almost own in express terms that they
fought for empire. But even the enemies of Brutus did not, they
tell us, lay this accusation to his charge; nay, many heard
Antony himself say that Brutus was the only man that conspired
against Caesar out of a sense of the glory and the apparent
justice of the action, but that all the rest rose up against the
man himself, from private envy and malice of their own. And it
is plain by what he writes himself, that Brutus did not so
much rely upon his forces, as upon his own virtue. For thus he
speaks in a letter to Atticus, shortly before he was to engage
with the enemy: that his affairs were in the best state of
fortune that he could wish; for that either he should overcome,
and restore liberty to the people of Rome, or die, and be
himself out of the reach of slavery; that other things being
certain and beyond all hazard, one thing was yet in doubt,
whether they should live or die free men. He adds further, that
Mark Antony had received a just punishment for his folly, who,
when he might have been numbered with Brutus and Cassius and
Cato, would join himself to Octavius; that though they should
not now be both overcome, they soon would fight between them
selves. And in this he seems to have been no ill prophet.
Now when they were at Smyrna, Brutus desired of Cassius that he
might have part of the great treasure that he had heaped up,
because all his own was expended in furnishing out such a fleet
of ships as was sufficient to keep the whole interior sea in
their power. But Cassius's friends dissuaded him from this;
"for," said they, "it is not just that the money which you with
so much parsimony keep and with so much envy have got, should be
given to him to be disposed of in making himself popular, and
gaining the favor of the soldiers." Notwithstanding this,
Cassius gave him a third part of all that he had; and then they
parted each to their several commands. Cassius, having taken
Rhodes, behaved himself there with no clemency; though at his
first entry, when some had called him lord and king, he
answered, that he was neither king nor lord, but the destroyer
and punisher of a king and lord. Brutus, on the other part,
sent to the Lycians to demand from them a supply of money and
men; but Naucrates, their popular leader, persuaded the cities
to resist, and they occupied several little mountains and hills,
with a design to hinder Brutus's passage. Brutus at first sent
out a party of horse, which, surprising them as they were
eating, killed six hundred of them; and afterwards, having taken
all their small towns and villages round about, he set all his
prisoners free without ransom, hoping to win the whole nation by
good-will. But they continued obstinate, taking in anger what
they had suffered, and despising his goodness and humanity;
until, having forced the most warlike of them into the city of
Xanthus, he besieged them there. They endeavored to make their
escape by swimming and diving through the river that flows by
the town, but were taken by nets let down for that purpose in
the channel, which had little bells at the top, which gave
present notice of any that were taken in them. After that, they
made a sally in the night, and seizing several of the battering
engines, set them on fire; but being perceived by the Romans,
were beaten back to their walls, and, there being a strong wind,
it carried the flames to the battlements of the city with such
fierceness, that several of the adjoining houses took fire.
Brutus, fearing lest the whole city should be destroyed,
commanded his own soldiers to assist, and quench the fire.