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Caesar himself intended to be dictator both years, and designated as masters of horse another man and Octavius, though the latter was at that time a mere lad.

For the time being, while this was going on, Caesar appointed Dolabella consul in his own stead, leaving Antony to finish out his year in office. To Lepidus he assigned Gallia Narbonensis and Hither Spain, and appointed two men masters of horse in his place, each to act separately.

All this Caesar did as a preliminary step to his campaign against the Parthians; but a baleful frenzy which fell upon certain men through jealousy of his advancement and hatred of his preferment to themselves caused his death unlawfully, while it added a new name to the annals of infamy; it scattered the decrees to the winds

and brought upon the Romans seditions and civil wars once more after a state of harmony. His slayers, to be sure, declared that they had shown themselves at once destroyers of Caesar and liberators of the people: but in reality they impiously plotted against him, and they threw the city into disorder when at last it possessed a stable government.

It is true that Caesar did now and then err by accepting some of the honours voted him and believing that he really deserved them; yet those were most blameworthy who, after beginning to honour him as he deserved, led him on and brought blame upon him for the measures they had passed.

As he seemed to like all this, a gilded chair was granted him, and a garb that the kings had once used, and a body-guard of knights and senators; furthermore they decided that prayers should be offered for him publicly every year, that they should swear by Caesar’s Fortune, and should regard as valid all his future acts.

And this is precisely what happened, though Caesar was encouraged by these very measures to believe that he should never be plotted against by the men who had voted him such honours, nor, through fear of them, by any one else; and consequently he even dispensed henceforth with a body-guard. For nominally he accepted the privilege of being watched over by the senators and knights, and so dismissed the guard he had previously had.

Indeed, when once they had voted to him on a single day an unusually large number of these honours of especial importance,—which had been granted unanimously by all except Cassius and a few others, who became famous for this action, yet suffered no harm, whereby Caesar’s clemency was conspicuously revealed,—they then approached him as he was sitting in the vestibule of the temple of Venus in order to announce to him in a body their decisions;

Subsequently, however, when he was riding in from the Alban Mount and some men again called him king, he said that his name was not king but Caesar; but when the same tribunes brought suit against the first man who had termed him king, he no longer restrained his wrath but showed great irritation, as if these very officials were really stirring up sedition against him.

Caesar, however, received an ill name from this fact also, that, whereas he should have hated those who applied to him the name of king, he let them go and found fault with the tribunes instead.

And Caesar answered: “Jupiter alone is king of the Romans,” and sent the diadem to Jupiter on the Capitol; yet he was not angry, but caused it to be inscribed in the records that he had refused to accept the kingship when offered to him by the people through the consul. It was accordingly suspected that this thing had been deliberately arranged and that he was anxious for the name, but wished to be somehow compelled to take it; consequently the hatred against him was intense.

Now these were the influences that persuaded Brutus to attack Caesar, whom he had opposed from the beginning in any case, although he had later accepted benefits from him. He was also influenced by the fact that he was both nephew and son-in -law of that Cato who was called Uticensis, as I have stated. And his wife Portia was the only woman, as they say, who was privy to the plot.

After this he obtained as an associate Gaius Cassius, who had also been spared by Caesar and moreover had been honoured with the praetorship; and he was the husband of Brutus’ sister. Next they proceeded to get together all the others who were of the same mind as themselves and these proved to be not a few in number.

For these joined in the plot against Caesar, notwithstanding that they also had received many benefits at his hands; Decimus, in fact, had been appointed consul for the next year and had been assigned to Hither Gaul.

They came very near being detected for two reasons. One was the number of those who were privy to the plot, although Caesar would not receive any information about anything of the sort and punished very severely those who brought any news of the kind.