Then Brutus prayed Cassius he might have the leading of the right winge, the whiche men thought was farre meeter for Cassius: both bicause he was the elder man, and also for that he had the better experience. But yet Cassius gave it him.
Octavius too has a higher conception of the dignity of his position. In that strange scene, another of Shakespeare’s additions, when the adversaries exchange gabs, like the heroes of the old Teutonic lays or the Chansons de Gestes, it is Antony who suggests the somewhat unseemly proceeding and it is Octavius who breaks it off. And at the close he, as it were, constitutes himself the heir of Brutus’ reputation, and assumes as a matter of course that he has the right and duty to provide for Brutus’ followers and take order for Brutus’ funeral.
All that served Brutus, I will entertain them ...
According to his virtue let us use him
With all respect and rites of burial
Within my tent his bones to-night shall lie.
(V. v. 60 and 76.)
For the first of these statements there is no warrant in Plutarch, and the second contradicts the impression his narrative produces; for in all the mention he makes of the final honours paid to Brutus, he gives the credit to Antony.
Antonius, having found Brutus bodie, he caused it to be wrapped up in one of the richest cote armors he had. Afterwards also, Antonius understanding that this cote armor was stollen, he put the theefe to death that had stollen it, and sent the ashes of his bodie to Servilia his mother.
Marcus Brutus.