(BOOK 44, BOISSEVAIN.)

[B.C. 44 (a.u. 710)]

[-1-] This Caesar did as a preliminary step to making a campaign against the Parthians, but a baleful frenzy which fell upon certain men through jealousy of his onward progress and hatred of his being esteemed above others caused the death of the leader by unlawful means, while it added a new name to the annals of infamy; it scattered decrees to the winds and brought upon the Romans seditions again and civil wars after a state of harmony. They declared that they had proved themselves both destroyers of Caesar and liberators of the people, but in fact their plot against him was one of fiendish malice, and they threw the city into disorder when at last it possessed a stable government. [-2-] Democracy has a fair appearing name which conveys the impression of bringing equal rights to all from equal laws, but its results are seen not to agree at all with its title. Monarchy, on the contrary, strikes the ear unpleasantly, but is a very excellent government to live under. It is easier to find one single excellent man than many, and if even this seems to some a difficult feat, it is quite inevitable that the other proposition be acknowledged to be impossible; for the acquirement of virtue is not a characteristic of the majority of men. And again, even though one reprobate should obtain supreme power, yet he is preferable to a multitude of such persons, as the history of the Greeks and barbarians and of the Romans themselves proves. For successes have always been greater and more in number in the case both of cities and of individuals under kings than under popular rule, and disasters do not happen so easily in monarchies as in ochlocracies. In cases where a democracy has flourished anywhere, it has nevertheless reached its prime during a short period when the people had neither size nor strength that abuses should spring up among them from good fortune or jealousies from ambition. For a city so large as this, ruling the finest and the greatest part of the known world, containing men of many and diverse natures, holding many huge fortunes, occupied with every imaginable pursuit, enjoying every imaginable fortune, both individually and collectively,—for such a city to practice moderation under a democracy is impossible, and still more is it impossible for the people, unless moderation prevails, to be harmonious. If Marcus Brutus and Gaius Cassius had stopped to think this over they would never have killed the city's head and protector nor have made themselves the cause of countless ills both to their own persons and to all the rest of mankind then existing.

[-3-] It happened as follows, and his death was due to the cause I shall presently describe. He had not aroused dislike without any definite justification, except in so far as it was the senators themselves who had by the novelty and excess of their honors sent his mind soaring; and then, after filling him with conceit, they found fault with his prerogatives and spread injurious reports to the effect that he was glad to accept them and behaved more haughtily as a result of them. It is true that sometimes Caesar erred by accepting some of the honors voted him and believing that he really deserved them, yet most blameworthy are those who, after beginning to reward him as he deserved, led him on and made him liable to censure by the measures that they voted. He neither dared to thrust them all aside, for fear of being thought contemptuous, nor could he be safe when he accepted them. Excess in honors and praises renders conceited even the most modest, especially if such rewards appear to have been given with sincerity. [-4-] The privileges that were granted him (in addition to all those mentioned) were of the following number and kinds. They will be stated all together, even if they were not all moved or ratified at one time. First, then, they voted that he should always appear even in the city itself wearing the triumphal garb and should sit in his chair of state everywhere except at festivals. At that time he got the right to be seen on the tribune's benches and in company with those who were successively tribunes. And they gave him the right to offer the so-called spolia opima at the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, as if he had slain some hostile general with his own hand, and to have lictors that always carried laurel, and after the Feriae Latinae to ride from Albanum to the city mounted on a charger. In addition to these remarkable privileges they named him father of his country, stamped his image on the coinage, voted to celebrate his birthday by public sacrifice, ordered that there be some statue of him in the cities and all the temples of Rome, and they set on the rostra two, one representing him as the savior of the citizens and the other as the rescuer of the city from siege, along with the crowns customary for such achievements. They also passed a resolution to build a temple of Concordia Nova, on the ground that through his efforts they enjoyed peace, and to celebrate an annual festival in her honor. [-5-] When he had accepted these, they assigned to him the charge of filling the Pontine marshes, cutting a canal through the Peloponnesian isthmus, and constructing a new senate-house, since that of Hostilius although repaired had been demolished. The reason given for that action was that a temple of Good Fortune might be built there, which Lepidus, indeed, while master of the horse had completed: but the real intention was that the name of Sulla should not be preserved in it and that another senate-house, newly constructed, might be named the Julian, just as they had called the month in which he was born July, and one of the tribes (selected by lot) the Julian. And Caesar himself, they voted, should be sole censor for life and enjoy the immunities bestowed upon the tribunes, so that if any one should outrage him by deed or word, that man should be an outlaw and involved in the curse, and further that his son, should he beget or adopt one, was to be appointed high priest. [-6-] As he seemed to like this, a gilded chair was granted him, and a garb that once the kings had used and a body-guard of knights and senators: furthermore they decided that prayers should be made for him publicly every year, that they would swear by his Fortune and that all the deeds he was yet to do should receive confirmation. Next they bestowed upon him a quinquennial festival, as to a hero, and managers of sacred rites for the festival of naked boys in Pan's honor,[110] constituting a third priestly college which they called the Julian, and on the occasion of all combats in armor one special day of his own each time both in Rome and the rest of Italy. When he showed himself pleased at this, too, then they voted that his gilded chair and crown set with precious gems and overlaid with gold should be carried into the theatre on an equal footing with those of the gods, and that on the occasion of the horse-races his chariot should be brought in. And finally they addressed him outright as Julian Jupiter and ordered a temple to be consecrated to him and to his Clemency, electing Antony as their priest like some Dialis.

[-7-] At the same time with these measures they passed another which well indicated their disposition. It gave him the right to place his tomb within the pomerium; and the decrees regarding this matter they inscribed with gold letters on silver tablets and deposited beneath the feet of the Capitoline Jupiter, thus pointing out to him very clearly that he was a man. When they began to honor him it was with the idea that he would be reasonably modest; but as they went on and saw that he was delighted at what they voted,—he accepted all but a very few of their gifts,—various men kept at different times proposing various greater marks of esteem, all in excess, some as an act of extreme flattery toward him, and others as one of sarcastic ridicule. Actually some dared to suggest permitting him to have intercourse with, as many women[111] as he liked, because even at this time, though fifty years old, he still had numerous mistresses. Others, and the majority, followed the course mentioned because they wished to make him envied and disliked as quickly as possible, that he might the sooner perish. Of course precisely that happened, though Caesar took courage on account of these very measures to believe that he would never be plotted against by the men who had voted him such honors, nor by any one else, because they would prevent it; and in consequence from this time he dispensed with a bodyguard. Nominally he accepted the privilege of being watched over by the senators and knights and thus did away with his previous guardians. [-8-] Once on a single day they had passed in his honor an unusually large number of decrees of especially important character, that had been voted unanimously by all the rest except Cassius and a few others, who became notorious for this action: yet they suffered no harm, a fact which conspicuously displayed their ruler's clemency. So, then, they approached him as he was sitting in the fore-part of the temple of Venus with the intention of announcing to him in a body their decisions;—such business they transacted in his absence, in order to have the appearance of doing it not under compulsion but voluntarily. And either by some Heaven-sent fatuity or through excess of joy he received them sitting, an act which aroused so great indignation among them all, not only senators but all the rest, that it afforded his slayers one of their chief excuses for their plot against him. Some who subsequently tried to defend him said that owing to diarrhoea he could not control the movement of his bowels and had remained where he was in order to avoid a flux.

They were not able, however, to persuade the majority, since not long after this he arose and walked home without assistance; hence most men suspected him of being inflated with pride and hated him for his supercilious behavior, when it was they themselves who had made him disdainful by the extreme nature of their honors. After this occurrence suspicion was increased by the fact that somewhat later he submitted to being made dictator for life.

[-9-] When he had reached this point, the conduct of the men plotting against him became no longer doubtful, and in order to embitter even his best friends against him they did their best to traduce the man and finally called him "king,"—a name which was often heard in their consultations. When he refused the title and rebuked in a way those that so saluted him, yet did nothing by which he could be thought to be really displeased at it, they secretly adorned his statue, which stood on the rostra, with a diadem. And when Gaius Epidius Marullus and Lucius Caesetius Flavus, tribunes, took it down, he became thoroughly angry, although they uttered no insulting word and furthermore spoke well of him before the people as not desiring anything of the sort.[-10-] At this time, though vexed, he remained quiet; subsequently, however, when he was riding in from Albanum, some men again called him king, and he said that his name was not king but Caesar: then when those tribunes brought suit against the first man that termed him king, he no longer restrained his wrath, but showed evident irritation, as if these officials were actually aiming at the stability of his government. For the moment he took no revenge upon them: later, when they issued public notice to the effect that they found themselves not at liberty to speak freely and without molestation for the public good, he appeared exceedingly angry and brought them into the senate-house, where he accused them and put their conduct to the vote. He did not put them to death, though some declared them worthy of that penalty, but first having removed them from the tribuneship through the motion of Helvius Cinna, their colleague, he erased their names from the senate. Some were pleased at this, or pretended to be, on the ground that they would have no need to incur danger by free speech, and keeping out of politics they viewed events as from a watch tower. Caesar, however, received an ill name from this fact, too, that whereas he should have hated those that applied to him the name of king, he let them go and found fault instead with the tribunes.

[-11-] Something else that happened not long after these events proved still more clearly that while pretendedly he shunned the title, in reality he desired to assume it. When he had entered the Forum at the festival of the Lupercalia, at which naked boys competed, and was sitting on the rostra in his golden chair adorned with the royal apparel and conspicuous by his crown wrought of gold, Antony with his fellow priests saluted him as king and surrounding his brows with a diadem said: "The people gives this to you through my hands." He answered that Jupiter alone was king of the Romans and sent the diadem to him to the Capitol, yet he was not angry and caused it to be inscribed in the records that the royalty presented to him by the people through the consul he had refused to receive. It was accordingly suspected that this had been done by some pre-arranged plan and that he was anxious for the name but wished to be somehow compelled to take it, and the consequent hatred against him was intense. After this certain men at the elections proposed those tribunes previously mentioned for the office of consul, and approaching Marcus Brutus and such other persons as were of high spirit attempted privately to persuade them and incited them to action publicly. [-12-] They scattered broadcast many letters (taking the fullest advantage of his having the same name as the great Brutus who overthrew the Tarquins), declaring that he was not truly that man's descendant: for he had put to death both his sons, the only ones he had, when they were mere lads, and was left no offspring surviving. This attitude was, however, a mere ruse on the part of the majority, adopted in order that being in family akin to that famous man he might be induced to undertake similar deeds. They kept continually invoking him, crying out "Brutus, Brutus!", and adding further: "We need a Brutus." Finally on the statue of the early Brutus they wrote "Would that thou wert living," and upon their contemporary's platform (he was praetor at the time) "Brutus, thou sleepest," and "Thou art not Brutus."

[-13-] These incidents persuaded him, especially as he had displayed 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.