eration had actually arrived. Among the last was Cicero. At the moment of the assassination, he had heard his name pronounced amongst the murderers; and, forgetting his own profound submission to the Emperor, he felt nothing, as he said, but gladness1 at the scene he stood beholding. Whether he joined the other Senators in their flight, or showed a more undaunted spirit than they who were mostly Cæsar's creatures, he certainly soon followed the conspirators to their place of refuge, not, indeed, with sword or shout, but full of determination to enter upon the course which younger, and, as he believed them, braver, men than he had opened by their blows. While he and they and their adherents were taking counsel together, some urging activity and others recommending the attitude already taken, the streets were full of various rumors. Neither the soldiers nor the citizens, of whom the populace within or near the walls was then composed, would exult in the conspiracy, even though they might not arm themselves against the conspirators; and the day was ended in uncertainty and inaction. On the morrow, the conspirators descended, together or in part, to the Forum, in order to address the crowds there moving to and fro, in ignorance of what might yet occur, almost of what had actually occurred. Brutus spoke first, to explain the reason of Cæsar's death; but though he was heard in re 4" Quid. . . . . præter lætitiam quam oculis cepi justo interitu tyranni?" Ad Att., XIV. 14. "Idus Martiæ consolantur." Ibid., 4. See spectful silence, another of the conspirators, who attacked the memory of the murdered Emperor, excited so great a tumult, that the speaker and all his associates were obliged to hasten back to the Capitol. There Brutus, it is said,5 dismissed all but the sixty conspirators, fearing an assault or a blockade, in which he knew that no number of old men could be of service. At the same time, a mission was despatched to the partisans of Cæsar, who were already resolved to take possession of their master's authority; and the night wore away in messages and preparations on either side. The city itself was lighted with bonfires; and many of the magistrates remained at their posts as in the day-time. 6 It is already plain that an enterprise consisting solely in a murder and supported only by a few irresolute and selfish individuals could have no other results than the substitution of anarchy in place of the despotism against which it had been directed. A day or two of indecision followed the first hours after the assassination; but if there were then any doubt as to the termination of the conspiracy, there can be none to those who now read that Mark Antony, one of the Consuls at the time, had seized the papers of the Emperor, and had been joined by Æmilius Lepidus, then Master of the Knights and long one of Cæsar's most devoted followers, at the head of the only forces in the neighbourhood. 5 Plut., Brut., 18. 6 App., Bell. Civ., II. 125. The 8 These had been collected by Lepidus, preparatory to his departure for the provinces assigned him Senate, called together by Antony on the third day, decreed, at his proposal, a general amnesty; but likewise ordered that the institutions and appointments of the Emperor were to remain unaltered, while he himself should be worshipped as a god in heaven.11o On the next day, the fourth from Cæsar's death, the Senate met again, to vote their thanks to the conspirators for the murder, and to Antony for having prevented the outbreak of a civil war. Such of the conspirators as held any magistracies were solemnly reinstated, and appointed to the provinces to which their offices entitled them. To these, as must be observed, they had been appointed by Cæsar; and it was through recourse to his authority that his murderers were now preserved and honored. 11 The end, however, was not yet come. It has been mentioned how Mark Antony appeared as the mourner and the orator at Cæsar's funeral; but it has not been told how the multitude was roused to fury, and how the flames of the burning pile spread about the Forum and roared with awful sound throughout the city.12 It was the beginning of many strange and dangerous scenes,13 by day and night, in which, as it seemed, the spirit of the murdered might be appeased. In the midst of growing tumults, the conspirators, they even who were among the magistrates of the in Gaul and Spain. App., Bell. Civ., II. 118, 126. 11 Plut., Brut., 19; Ant., 14. 9 Ibid., 135. Plut., Brut., 19. Brut., 20; Cæs., 68. Cic., Philipp., II. 35. 10 Plut., Cæs., 67. 13 Suet., Cæs., 84, 85. Dion Cass., XLIV. 51. year, fled terrified from Rome,14 where Antony remained in power as absolute as that which Cæsar had held a month before 15 The restive servant was soon the wanton master. He seized the treasures collected for the Parthian expedition; 16 and obtaining sums nearly as enormous in return for the acts he forged in Cæsar's name, under the pretence of finding them amongst the Emperor's papers, he soon bought up his colleague in the consulship, many of the Senators, and more still of the legions and the populace. With formal authority from the Senate to act upon all things "appointed, decreed, and done by the Emperor," " Antony, himself surrounded by guards,18 wreaked all the outrages he chose to inflict upon the Commonwealth, undefended and with senses yet uncollected from its trance, as some had hoped it might be proved, of degradation. "There is now," wrote Cicero, "no shadow, no trace, of legal government." 19 Meanwhile, the authors of the deed from which these greater dangers had arisen were at a distance, . in safety, indeed, but with evident want of confidence, either in themselves or in any of their countrymen. Within two months from the murder, Brutus wrote, in his own name and in that of Cassius, to 14 Plut., Brut., 21. App., Bell. Civ., II. 148. 15 Plut., Ant., 15. Dion Cass., XLIV. 53. Two of his brothers were also in office, the one being a Prætor, the other a Tribune. Dion Cass., XLV. 9. 16 Cic., Philipp., II. 37. 17 See the letters, ap. Cic., Ad Att., XVI. 16. 18 App., Bell. Civ., III. 5. 19 Ad Div., X. 1. See also XII. 1; Philipp., I. 10, II. 42, V. 4. ... Antony as follows:-"We ask you to manifest your intentions towards us more clearly; for you cannot imagine we should be safe amidst your multitude of soldiers. It is plain," he adds, but it is difficult to believe him sincere or sane, "plain that we have had a view to the peace of our country from the beginning, without seeking any thing else besides a universal liberty.' ,, 20 Three months later, when the behaviour of Antony had excited the most mournful apprehensions, not only in the conspirators, but with all men who were still either thoughtful or ambitious, Brutus addressed him again. "We wonder," he says, "that you should have been so transported by passion as to reproach us with Cæsar's death. . . . . . If we wished to excite a civil war, your language would nowise hinder us; but you know that we are not to be driven to arms." 21 The strongest friends of the conspirators implored them to desist from their vanity and indecision; 22 but as Cicero wrote, six weeks after the assassination, "we have been freed by illustrious men; but we are not free." 23 The arrival of Octavius, who must henceforth be mentioned under the name he assumed of Cæsar, a month or two after his uncle's fall, was the introduction of another competitor for power over the prostrate Commonwealth. Antony owed the place he 20 Brut. et Cass., ap. Cic., Ad Div., XI. 2. 21 Ibid., 3. 22 Cic., Ad Att., XV. 4, 29; and above all, the account of Cicero's interview with Brutus and Cassius, in the same letters, 11. 23 Ad Att., XIV. 14. "Sublato enim tyranno," he says again (Ibid., 4), "tyrannida manere." So Ibid., XIV. 11. |