Plutarch's Lives, Volume 4 (of 4)

by Plutarch

XXIV. Having set out thence Brutus sailed towards Athens.[536] The people received him gladly with expressions of good wishes and public honours, and he lodged with a friend. As he attended the discourses of Theomnestus the Academic, and Cratippus[537] the Peripatetic, and associated with those philosophers, it was supposed that he was altogether inactive and was unbending himself. But he was busied about preparations for war, when no one suspected it; for he sent Herostratus into Macedonia with the view of gaining over those who were with the armies there, and he attached to himself and kept with him the young men from Rome who were residing at Athens for the sake of their studies. Among them was also a son of Cicero whom Brutus particularly commends, and says, that whether he is waking or sleeping, he admires him for his noble disposition and hatred of tyrants. Having now begun openly to attend to affairs, and hearing that Roman vessels full of money were sailing over from Asia, with a commander on board who was an honest man and an acquaintance of his, he met him near Carystus;[538] and having fallen in with him and persuaded him and obtained a surrender of the vessels, he prepared for a magnificent entertainment, for it was the birthday of Brutus. When they had come to drinking and were pouring out wine with wishes for the success of Brutus and the liberty of the Romans, Brutus, wishing to encourage them still more, asked for a larger cup, and taking it up, without anything moving thereto, he uttered the following verse:

“Me evil fate and Leto’s son[539] have slain.”

In addition to this they report that when he went out to fight the last battle at Philippi, Apollo was the word that he gave to his soldiers. Accordingly they consider that the utterance of that verse was a sign of what was to befall him.

XXV. After this Antistius gave Brutus fifty ten thousands out of the money which he was taking to Italy; and all the soldiers of Pompeius who were still rambling about Thessaly gladly flocked to Brutus; and he took five hundred horsemen from Cinna who was conducting them into Asia to Dolabella.[540] He then sailed against Demetrias[541] and got possession of a large quantity of arms, which were going to be carried away to Antonius, and had been made at the command of the elder Cæsar for the Parthian war. Hortensius,[542] the governor, also surrendered Macedonia to him, and the kings and rulers all around began to side with him and to come over; but in the meantime news arrived that Caius, the brother of Antonius, had crossed over from Italy and was marching straight against the troops which Gabinius[543] had under him in Epidamnus and Apollonia. Brutus, intending to anticipate and prevent him, immediately put in motion those who were with him, and marched through a difficult country in the midst of a snow-storm; and he was far in advance of those who conveyed the provisions. As he came near Epidamnus, he began to suffer from bulimy[544] through exhaustion and cold. This malady chiefly attacks both beasts and men when they are worn out and in the midst of the snow, whether it is that the heat owing to the refrigeration and condensation, when everything is internally compressed, consumes the nourishment all at once, or that a sharp and subtle breath arising from the snow penetrating through, cuts the body and destroys the warmth which is dispersed outwards from it. For it seems that heat causes sweats through meeting with the cold and being quenched about the surface; whereof there has been further discussion in another place.

XXVI. As Brutus was fainting, and no one in the army had anything to eat, his attendants were compelled to fly for refuge to their enemies, and approaching the gates they asked bread of the watch, who hearing of the mishap of Brutus came and brought to eat and to drink. In return for which, when Brutus got possession of the city, he not only treated them kindly, but also all the rest for their sake. Caius Antonius now came up to Apollonia and summoned the soldiers who were there; but when they went over to Brutus, and he perceived that the people of Apollonia were in favour of Brutus, he left the city and marched to Buthrotum.[545] And in the first place he lost three cohorts, which were cut to pieces by Brutus on the march; and in the next place, attempting to force the posts about Byblis, which were already occupied, he came to a battle with Cicero and was defeated; for Brutus employed Cicero in command and gained many successes through him. Brutus himself came upon Caius, who was in marshy ground and far separated from the rest of his troops, but he would not let his men make an attack, and he threw his cavalry around him with orders to spare the men, saying that in a short time they would be theirs; which in fact happened, for they surrendered themselves and their general, so that there was now a large force with Brutus. Now Brutus treated Caius respectfully for some time and did not deprive him of the insignia of his office, though, as they say, many persons, and Cicero among the rest, wrote to him from Rome and urged him to do it. But as Caius began to have secret conferences with the officers and attempted to excite a mutiny, he had him put in a ship and guarded. The soldiers who had been corrupted fled to Apollonia and invited Brutus there, but Brutus said that this was not the custom among the Romans, and that they must come to their general, and ask pardon for their offence. They came, and Brutus pardoned them at their prayer.

XXVII. As Brutus was going to set out for Asia, news arrived of the changes at Rome. The young Caesar had been strengthened by the Senate against Antonius, whom he had driven out of Italy, and he was now formidable, and was seeking for the consulship contrary to law, and maintaining large armies of which the State had no need. But when Caesar saw that the Senate was displeased at this, and was looking abroad towards Brutus and decreeing provinces[546] for him and confirming them, he became alarmed. And he sent to Antonius and invited him to friendship, and placing his troops around the city he got the consulship, being yet hardly a young man, but in his twentieth year, as he said in his Memoirs. He immediately instituted a prosecution on a charge of murder against Brutus and his partisans, for having put to death without trial the first man in the state who was filling the highest offices; and he named as the accuser of Brutus, Lucius Cornificius, and Marcus Agrippa as the accuser of Cassius. Accordingly they were condemned for default of appearance, the judices being compelled to go to the vote. It is said that when the crier, according to custom, from the tribunal summoned Brutus into court, the mass gave a loud groan, and the nobles bent their heads to the ground and kept silence; but that Publius Silicius was seen to shed tears, and for this reason was shortly after one of those who were proscribed. After this, the three, Cæsar, Antonius and Lepidus, distributed the provinces among them, and caused the slaughter and proscription of two hundred men, among whom Cicero perished.

XXXVIII. When the news of these events reached Macedonia, Brutus,[547] compelled by circumstances, wrote to Hortensius to put Caius Antonius to death, on the ground of avenging Brutus and Cicero, the one being his friend, and the other both a friend and kinsman. This was the reason why Antonius, when he afterwards took Hortensius at Philippi, put him to death on the tomb of his brother. Brutus says that he felt more shame at the cause of Cicero’s death than sympathy at his misfortune, and that he blamed his friends in Rome, for they were slain more through their own fault than that of the tyrants, and that they submitted to see and to witness what it should have been intolerable for them even to hear. Brutus having taken his army over to Asia, which was now a considerable force, set about fitting out a naval force in Bithynia[548] and in the neighbourhood of Cyzicus; and himself moving about with his troops settled the cities and had interviews with the rulers; and he sent to Cassius[549] into Syria to recall him from Egypt; for he said that it was not to get dominion, but to deliver their country that they were rambling about and collecting a force with which they would put down the tyrants; that they ought therefore, remembering and keeping in mind this purpose, not to hold themselves far from Italy, but to hasten thither and to aid the citizens. Cassius obeyed, and Brutus met him on his return; and they fell in with one another near Smyrna, for the first time since they had separated in Peiraeus and set out, the one for Syria, the other for Macedonia. They had accordingly great pleasure and confidence owing to the force which each had. For they had hurried from Italy like the most despicable fugitives, without money and without arms, without a single ship, a single soldier, or a city, and yet after no very long interval they had come together with ships and troops and horses and money, able to struggle for the supremacy of the Romans.

XXIX. Now Cassius was desirous to have and to allow an equal share of honour, but Brutus herein anticipated him by generally going to Cassius who, in age, was his superior, and in body was not able to sustain equal toil. The opinion was that Cassius was skilled in military matters, but was violent in passion and governed mainly by fear, while towards his intimates he was too much inclined to use ridicule and was too fond of jesting. As to Brutus, they say that he was esteemed by the many for his virtues, but loved by his friends, admired by the nobles, and not hated even by his enemies, because the man was extraordinarily mild and high-minded and unmoved by anger, pleasure or love of aggrandisement, and kept his judgment upright and unbending in the maintenance of honour and justice. That which got him most goodwill and reputation was the faith which men had in his motives. For neither that great Pompeius, if he had put down Cæsar, was confidently expected to give up his power to the laws, but to retain affairs in his hands, pacifying the people with the name of consulship and dictatorship or some other title with more pleasing name; and this Cassius, who was a violent and passionate man and was often carried away from justice in quest of gain, more than any one else they thought would carry on war, and ramble about and expose himself to danger for the purpose of getting power for himself, not liberty for the citizens. For as to the men of still earlier times, the Cinnas and Marii and Carbos, they viewed their country as a prize and booty for competition, and all but in express words fought to get a tyranny. But as to Brutus, they say that not even his enemies imputed to him such a change in his purpose, but that many persons had heard Antonius say, he thought Brutus was the only person who conspired against Cæsar because of being moved by the splendour and apparent noble nature of the deed, and that the rest combined against the man because they hated and envied him. Accordingly it appears from what Brutus says that he trusted not so much in his power as in his virtues. He wrote to Atticus when he was just approaching the danger, that his affairs were in the best plight as to fortune, for that he should either get the victory and free the Roman people, or should die and be released from slavery; and though everything else was safe and secure for them, one thing was uncertain, whether they should live and be free or die. He says that Marcus Antonius was paying a just penalty for his folly, for while he might have been numbered with the Bruti and Cassii and Catos, he made himself an appendage to Octavius, and if he should not be defeated with him, he would shortly after have to fight against him. Now he seems, in saying this, to have well divined what was to happen.