BOOK CXIV.
Cæcilius Bassus, [y. r. 706. b. c. 46,] a Roman knight of the Pompeian party, stirred up war in Syria; the legion left there under the command of Sextus Cæsar, having slain their commander, and revolted to Bassus. Cæsar defeated Scipio the prætor, Afranius, and Juba, at Thapsus, their camps having been stormed. Having heard of this circumstance, Cato stabbed himself at Utica, and by the intervention of his son he might have been saved, but in the middle of the restoratives, having torn open the wound, he expired, in his forty-ninth year. Petreius put Juba and himself to death. Publius Scipio, being surrounded in his ship, to an honourable death added also a remarkable speech, for to the enemies who inquired about the general, he said, “The general is well.” Faustus and Afranius were slain. Cato’s son was pardoned. Brutus, Cæsar’s lieutenant-general, defeated the rebellious Bellovacians in battle.
BOOK CXV.
Cæsar triumphed four times; over Gaul, Egypt, Pontus, and Africa. He gave a feast, and exhibited shows of every description. To Marcus Marcellus, a man of consular rank, he granted leave to return at the request of the senate; which favour Marcellus did not live to enjoy, having been murdered at Athens by Cneius Magius Cilo, his own dependant. Cæsar held a census, when the number of citizens amounted to one hundred and fifty thousand, [y. r. 707. b. c. 45,] and went to Spain against Cneius Pompey; where, after many attacks on both sides, many cities having been stormed, he at length gained a signal victory, after a most desperate engagement, at Munda. Sextus Pompeius effected his escape.
BOOK CXVI.
Cæsar triumphed a fifth time over Spain. Very many and high honours were decreed him by the senate; among others, that he should be styled Father of his country, and Sacred, and also that he should be perpetual dictator, [y. r. 708. b. c. 44.] It afforded cause of odium against him, that he rose not to the senate when conferring these honours on him, as he was sitting before the shrine of Venus Genetrix; and that he laid aside on a chair the diadem, placed on his head, by his colleague in the consulship, Marcus Antonius, who was running among the Lupercalians, and that the magistracies were taken away from Epidius Marullus and Cassetius Flavus, the tribunes of the people, who excited envy against him for aiming at the imperial dignity. For these reasons, a conspiracy was formed against him; the chiefs of which were, Marcus Brutus and Caius Cassius, with two of his own partisans, Decimus Brutus and Caius Trebonius. He was slain in Pompey’s senate-house with three-and-twenty wounds; and the Capitol was seized on by his murderers. An act of amnesty having been passed by the senate in relation to his murder, and the children of Antony and Lepidus having been taken as hostages, the conspirators came down from the Capitol. Octavius, Cæsar’s nephew, was by his will made heir of half his possessions. Cæsar’s body was burnt by the people, in the Campus Martius, opposite the rostrum. The office of dictator was abolished for ever. Caius Amatius, one of the lowest of the people, giving himself out for the son of Caius Marius, having excited some seditious movements among the credulous vulgar, was slain.