[508] Brutus was a great reader and a busy writer. Drumann (Junii, p. 37) gives a sketch of his literary activity. Such a trifle as an epitome of Polybius was probably only intended as a mere occupation to pass the time. The loss of it is not a matter of regret, any further than so far as it might have supplied some deficiencies in the present text of Polybius. Bacon (Advancement of Learning) describes epitomes thus: “As for the corruptions and moths of history, which are epitomes, the use of them deserveth to be banished, as all men of sound judgment have confessed; as those that have fretted and corroded the sound bodies of many excellent histories, and wrought them into base and unprofitable dregs.”
[509] The story of Cæsar receiving this note is told in the Life of Cato, c. 24. Cæsar was born on the 12th July, B.C. 100, which is a sufficient answer to the scandalous tale of his being the father of Brutus. That he may have had an adulterous commerce with Servilia in and before B.C. 63, the year of Catiline’s conspiracy, is probable enough.
[510] This was C. Cassius Longinus, who accompanied Crassus in his Parthian campaign (Life of Crassus, c. 18, &c.). After Cato had retired to Africa, Cassius made his peace with Cæsar (Dion Cassius, xlii. 13).
[511] Kaltwasser has adopted the correction of Moses du Soul, and has translated the passage “in Nikaea für den König Deiotarus.” The anecdote appears to refer clearly to king Deiotarus, as appears from Cicero’s Letters to Atticus (xiv. 1). See Drumann’s note, Junii, p. 25, note 83. Coræs would read Γαλατῶν for Λιβύων.
[512] This was the north part of Italy. Cæsar set out for his African campaign in B.C. 47. Brutus held Gallia in the year B.C. 46. See Drumann, Junii, p. 26, note 91, on the administration of Gallia by Brutus.
[513] Plutarch here alludes to the office of Prætor Urbanus, who, during the year of his office, was the chief person for the administration of justice. The number of prætors at this time was ten (Dion Cassius, xlii. 51), to which number they were increased from eight by Cæsar in B.C. 47. The Prætor Urbanus still held the first rank. The motive of Cæsar may have been, as Dion Cassius says, to oblige his dependents by giving them office and rank. Brutus was Prætor Urbanus in B.C. 44, the year of Cæsar’s assassination.
[514] This anecdote is told in Cæsar’s Life, c. 62.
[515] Q. Fufius Calenus was sent by Cæsar before the battle of Pharsalus to Greece (Life of Cæsar, c. 43). Megara made strong resistance to Calenus, and was treated with severity. Dion Cassius (xlii. 14) says nothing about the lions.
[516] See the Life of Sulla, c. 34, and note to c. 37; and the Life of Cæsar, c. 53, note.
[517] See the Life of Cæsar, c. 61, and Dion Cassius, xliv. 3, &c.