Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
into the camp. But some that had a quicker and longer sight
than the rest acquainted Brutus that they saw a great deal of
shining armor and silver targets moving to and fro in Cassius's
camp, and that they thought, by their number and the fashion of
their armor, they could not be those that they left to guard the
camp; but yet that there did not appear so great a number of
dead bodies thereabouts as it was probable there would have been
after the actual defeat of so many legions. This first made
Brutus suspect Cassius's misfortune, and, leaving a guard in the
enemy's camp, he called back those that were in the pursuit, and
rallied them together to lead them to the relief of Cassius,
whose fortune had been as follows.
First, he had been angry at the onset that Brutus's soldiers
made, without the word of battle or command to charge. Then,
after they had overcome, he was as much displeased to see them
rush on to the plunder and spoil, and neglect to surround and
encompass the rest of the enemy. Besides this, letting himself
act by delay and expectation, rather than command boldly and
with a clear purpose, he got hemmed in by the right wing of the
enemy, and, his horse making with all haste their escape and
flying towards the sea, the foot also began to give way, which
he perceiving labored as much as ever he could to hinder their
flight and bring them back; and, snatching an ensign out of the
hand of one that fled, he stuck it at his feet, though he could
hardly keep even his own personal guard together. So that at
last he was forced to fly with a few about him to a little hill
that overlooked the plain. But he himself, being weak-sighted,
discovered nothing, only the destruction of his camp, and that
with difficulty. But they that were with him saw a great body
of horse moving towards him, the same whom Brutus had sent.
Cassius believed these were enemies, and in pursuit of him;
however, he sent away Titinius, one of those that were with him,
to learn what they were. As soon as Brutus's horse saw him
coming, and knew him to be a friend and a faithful servant of
Cassius, those of them that were his more familiar acquaintance,
shouting out for joy and alighting from their horses, shook
hands and embraced him, and the rest rode round about him
singing and shouting, through their excess of gladness at the
sight of him. But this was the occasion of the greatest
mischief that could be. For Cassius really thought that
Titinius had been taken by the enemy, and cried out, "Through
too much fondness of life, I have lived to endure the sight of
my friend taken by the enemy before my face." After which words
he retired into an empty tent, taking along with him only
Pindarus, one of his freedmen, whom he had reserved for such an
occasion ever since the disasters in the expedition against the
Parthians, when Crassus was slain. From the Parthians he came
away in safety; but now, pulling up his mantle over his head, he
made his neck bare, and held it forth to Pindarus, commanding
him to strike. The head was certainly found lying severed from
the body. But no man ever saw Pindarus after, from which some
suspected that he had killed his master without his command.
Soon after they perceived who the horsemen were, and saw
Titinius, crowned with garlands, making what haste he could
towards Cassius. But as soon as he understood by the cries and
lamentations of his afflicted friends the unfortunate error and
death of his general, he drew his sword, and having very much
accused and upbraided his own long stay, that had caused it, he
slew himself.
Brutus, as soon as he was assured of the defeat of Cassius, made
haste to him; but heard nothing of his death till he came near
his camp. Then having lamented over his body, calling him "the
last of the Romans," it being impossible that the city should
ever produce another man of so great a spirit, he sent away the
body to be buried at Thasos, lest celebrating his funeral within
the camp might breed some disorder. He then gathered the
soldiers together and comforted them; and, seeing them destitute
of all things necessary, he promised to every man two thousand
drachmas in recompense of what he had lost. They at these words
took courage, and were astonished at the magnificence of the
gift; and waited upon him at his parting with shouts and
praises, magnifying him for the only general of all the four who
was not overcome in the battle. And indeed the action itself
testified that it was not without reason he believed he should
conquer; for with a few legions he overthrew all that resisted
him; and if all his soldiers had fought, and the most of them
had not passed beyond the enemy in pursuit of the plunder, it is
very likely that he had utterly defeated every part of them.
There fell of his side eight thousand men, reckoning the
servants of the army, whom Brutus calls Briges; and on the other
side, Messala says his opinion is that there were slain above
twice that number. For which reason they were more out of heart
than Brutus, until a servant of Cassius, named Demetrius, came
in the evening to Antony, and brought to him the garment which
he had taken from the dead body, and his sword; at the sight of
which they were so encouraged, that, as soon as it was morning,
they drew out their whole force into the field, and stood in
battle array. But Brutus found both his camps wavering and in
disorder; for his own, being filled with prisoners, required a
guard more strict than ordinary over them; and that of Cassius
was uneasy at the change of general, besides some envy and
rancor, which those that were conquered bore to that part of the
army which had been conquerors. Wherefore he thought it
convenient to put his army in array, but to abstain from
fighting. All the slaves that were taken prisoners, of whom
there was a great number that were mixed up, not without
suspicion, among the soldiers, he commanded to be slain; but of
the freemen and citizens, some he dismissed, saying that among
the enemy they were rather prisoners than with him, for with
them they were captives and slaves, but with him freemen and
citizens of Rome. But he was forced to hide and help them to
escape privately, perceiving that his friends and officers were
bent upon revenge against them. Among the captives there was
one Volumnius, a player, and Sacculio, a buffoon; of these
Brutus took no manner of notice, but his friends brought them
before him, and accused them that even then in that condition
they did not refrain from their jests and scurrilous language.
Brutus, having his mind taken up with other affairs, said
nothing to their accusation; but the judgment of Messala
Corvinus was, that they should be whipped publicly upon a stage,
and so sent naked to the captains of the enemy, to show them
what sort of fellow drinkers and companions they took with them
on their campaigns. At this some that were present laughed; and
Publius Casca, he that gave the first wound to Caesar, said, "We
do ill to jest and make merry at the funeral of Cassius. But
you, O Brutus," he added, "will show what esteem you have for
the memory of that general, according as you punish or preserve
alive those who will scoff and speak shamefully of him." To
this Brutus, in great discomposure replied, "Why then, Casca, do
you ask me about it, and not do yourselves what you think
fitting?" This answer of Brutus was taken for his consent to
the death of these wretched men; so they were carried away and
slain.
After this he gave the soldiers the reward that he had promised
them; and having slightly reproved them for having fallen upon
the enemy in disorder without the word of battle or command, he
promised them, that if they behaved themselves bravely in the
next engagement, he would give them up two cities to spoil and
plunder, Thessalonica and Lacedaemon. This is the one
indefensible thing of all that is found fault with in the life
of Brutus; though true it may be that Antony and Caesar were
much more cruel in the rewards that they gave their soldiers
after victory; for they drove out, one might almost say, all the
old inhabitants of Italy, to put their soldiers in possession of
other men's lands and cities. But indeed their only design and
end in undertaking the war was to obtain dominion and empire,
whereas Brutus, for the reputation of his virtue, could not be
permitted either to overcome or save himself but with justice
and honor, especially after the death of Cassius, who was
generally accused of having been his adviser to some things that
he had done with less clemency. But now, as in a ship, when the
rudder is broken by a storm, the mariners fit and nail on some
other piece of wood instead of it, striving against the danger
not well, but as well as in that necessity they can, so Brutus,
being at the head of so great an army, in a time of such
uncertainty, having no commander equal to his need, was forced
to make use of those that he had, and to do and to say many
things according to their advice; which was, in effect, whatever
might conduce to the bringing of Cassius's soldiers into better
order. For they were very headstrong and intractable, bold and
insolent in the camp for want of their general, but in the field
cowardly and fearful, remembering that they had been beaten.
Neither were the affairs of Caesar and Antony in any better
posture; for they were straitened for provision, and, the camp
being in a low ground, they expected to pass a very hard winter.
For being driven close upon the marshes, and a great quantity of
rain, as is usual in autumn, having fallen after the battle,
their tents were all filled with mire and water, which through
the coldness of the weather immediately froze. And while they
were in this condition, there was news brought to them of their
loss at sea. For Brutus's fleet fell upon their ships, which
were bringing a great supply of soldiers out of Italy, and so
entirely defeated them, that but very few of the men escaped
being slain, and they too were forced by famine to feed upon the
sails and tackle of the ship. As soon as they heard this, they
made what haste they could to come to the decision of a battle,
before Brutus should have notice of his good success. For it
had so happened that the fight both by sea and land was on the
same day, but by some misfortune, rather than the fault of his
commanders, Brutus knew not of his victory twenty days after.
For had he been informed of this, he would not have been brought
to a second battle, since he had sufficient provisions for his
army for a long time, and was very advantageously posted, his
camp being well sheltered from the cold weather, and almost
inaccessible to the enemy, and his being absolute master of the
sea, and having at land overcome on that side wherein he himself
was engaged, would have made him full of hope and confidence.
But it seems, the state of Rome not enduring any longer to be
governed by many, but necessarily requiring a monarchy, the
divine power, that it might remove out of the way the only man
that was able to resist him that could control the empire, cut
off his good fortune from coming to the ears of Brutus; though
it came but a very little too late, for the very evening before
the fight, Clodius, a deserter from the enemy, came and
announced that Caesar had received advice of the loss of his
fleet, and for that reason was in such haste to come to a
battle. But his story met with no credit, nor was he so much as
seen by Brutus, being simply set down as one that had had no
good information, or invented lies to bring himself into favor.
The same night, they say, the vision appeared again to Brutus,
in the same shape that it did before, but vanished without