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At last Caesar rose from the rostra in displeasure, and pulling back the toga from his throat cried out that anyone who pleased might smite him there. The wreath, which had been hung upon one of his statues, certain tribunes of the people tore down. These men the people greeted with favouring cries and clapping of hands; but Caesar deprived them of their office.

On account of these things Brutus and his associates left the city, the friends of Caesar united in support of Antony, and Caesar’s wife, Calpurnia, putting confidence in Antony, took most of the treasure from Caesar’s house and put it in his charge; it amounted in all to four thousand talents.

After this settlement, Antony sent Ventidius on ahead into Asia to oppose the further progress of the Parthians, while he himself, as a favour to Caesar, was appointed to the priesthood of the elder Caesar; everything else also of the most important political nature they transacted together and in a friendly spirit. But their competitive diversions gave Antony annoyance, because he always came off with less than Caesar.

Antony entertained Caesar first, who consented to it for his sister’s sake. And after it had been agreed that Caesar should give to Antony two legions for his Parthian war, and Antony to Caesar one hundred bronze-beaked galleys, Octavia, independently of this agreement, obtained twenty light sailing craft from her husband for her brother, and one thousand soldiers from her brother for her husband.

By reporting these things to the senate and by frequent denunciations before the people Caesar tried to inflame the multitude against Antony. Antony, too, kept sending counter-accusations against Caesar. The chief accusations which he made were, in the first place, that after taking Sicily away from Pompey, Caesar had not assigned a part of the island to him; in the second place, that after borrowing ships from him for the war he had kept them for himself; thirdly, that after ejecting his colleague Lepidus from office and degrading him, he was keeping for himself the army, the territory, and the revenues which had been assigned to Lepidus;

Caesar’s fleet, on the other hand, was perfectly equipped, and consisted of ships which had not been built for a display of height or mass, but were easily steered, swift, and fully manned. This fleet Caesar kept assembled at Tarentum and Brundisium, and he sent to Antony a demand to waste no time, but to come with his forces; Caesar himself would furnish his armament with unobstructed roadsteads and harbours, and would withdraw with his land forces a day’s journey for a horseman from the sea-shore, until Antony should have safely landed and fixed his camp.

By Marcellus Octavia had two daughters, and one son, Marcellus, whom Caesar made both his son and his son-in-law, and he gave one of the daughters to Agrippa. But since Marcellus died very soon after his marriage and it was not easy for Caesar to select from among his other friends a son-in-law whom he could trust, Octavia proposed that Agrippa should take Caesar’s daughter to wife, and put away her own.

First Caesar was persuaded by her, then Agrippa, whereupon she took back her own daughter and married her to young Antony, while Agrippa married Caesar’s daughter. Antony left two daughters by Octavia, of whom one was taken to wife by Domitius Ahenobarbus, and the other, Antonia, famous for her beauty and discretion, was married to Drusus, who was the son of Livia and the step-son of Caesar. From this marriage sprang Germanicus and Claudius;

Here, when the state was rent by factions, Pompey and Caesar appealing to arms and the supreme power being confounded, Brutus was expected to choose the side of Caesar, since his father had been put to death a while before at the instigation of Pompey; but thinking it his duty to put the public good above his own, and holding that Pompey’s grounds for going to war were better than Caesar’s, he attached himself to Pompey.

At this, a great tumult arose, and Caesar gave the missive, just as it was, to Cato. Cato found, when he read it, that it was a wanton bit of writing from his sister Servilia, and throwing it to Caesar with the words “Take it, thou sot,” turned again to the business under discussion. So notorious was Servilia’s passion for Caesar.

From thence he wrote to Caesar, who was delighted at his safe escape, and bade him come to him, and not only pardoned him, but actually made him a highly honoured companion. Now, since no one could tell whither Pompey was fleeing, and all were in great perplexity, Caesar took a long walk with Brutus alone, and sounded him on the subject. Certain considerations advanced by Brutus made his opinion concerning Pompey’s flight seem the best, and Caesar therefore renounced all other courses and hastened towards Egypt.

And in all other ways, too, Brutus had as large a share in Caesar’s power as he wished. Indeed, had he wished it, he might have been first among Caesar’s friends and exercised the greatest power; but the party of Cassius drew him away from such a course. Not that he was reconciled to Cassius himself as yet, after their struggle for honours, but he gave ear to the friends of Cassius, who urged him not to suffer himself to be charmed and softened by Caesar, but rather to flee the tyrant’s kindnesses and favours, for these were shown to him, not to reward his virtue, but to root out his vigour and his haughty spirit.

But Cassius, a man of violent temper, and rather a hater of Caesar on his own private account than a hater of tyranny on public grounds, fired him up and urged him on. Brutus, it is said, objected to the rule, but Cassius hated the ruler, and among other charges which he brought against him was that of taking away some lions which Cassius had provided when he was about to be aedile; the beasts had been left at Megara, and when the city was taken by Calenus, Caesar appropriated them.

For by sparing Antony’s life as he had done he incurred the charge of raising up against the conspirators a bitter and formidable foe; and now, in allowing Caesar’s funeral rites to be conducted as Antony demanded, he committed a fatal error. For, in the first place, when it was found that the will of Caesar gave to every single Roman seventy-five drachmas, and left to the people his gardens beyond the Tiber, where now stands a temple of Fortune, an astonishing kindliness and yearning for Caesar seized the citizens;

and in the second place, after Caesar’s body had been brought to the forum, Antony pronounced the customary eulogy, and when he saw that the multitude were moved by his words, changed his tone to one of compassion, and taking the robe of Caesar, all bloody as it was, unfolded it to view, pointing out the many places in which it had been pierced and Caesar wounded. All further orderly procedure was at an end, of course;