Brutus

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28.2.1
Brutus, however, says that he felt more shame at the cause of Cicero’s death than grief at the event itself, and threw the blame upon his friends at Rome. He said their servitude was due to themselves rather than to their tyrants, and that they consented to be eyewitnesses of things of which they ought not even to hear.
28.3.1
He now crossed into Asia with his army, which was already a splendid one, and equipped a fleet in Bithynia and at Cyzicus, while he himself, proceeding by land, settled the affairs of the cities and gave audiences to the potentates of the country. He also sent to Cassius in Syria, recalling him from his expedition to Egypt;
28.4.1
for it was not to win empire for themselves, he said, but to give liberty to their country, that they were wandering about and collecting forces with which to overthrow the tyrants;
28.5.1
they must therefore keep their purpose carefully in mind and not get far removed from Italy, but rather hasten thither and give aid to their countrymen.
28.6.1
Cassius obeyed, and as he was returning, Brutus went to meet him. Their interview at Smyrna was the first they had had since they parted at Piraeus and set out, the one for Syria, the other for Macedonia.
28.7.1
They therefore derived great pleasure and courage from the forces which each now had. For they had set out from Italy like the most wretched of exiles, without money, without arms, having not a ship equipped with oars, not a single soldier, not a city; but before very long they had met, having a fleet, an army of foot and horse, and money, which made them worthy antagonists in the struggle for supremacy at Rome.
29.1.1
Now, Cassius was desirous that Brutus and he should have equal honour, but Brutus forestalled this by coming to him generally, since he was an older man and unable to endure the same amount of hardship.
29.2.1
Cassius had the reputation of being an able soldier, but harsh in his anger, and with an authority based largely on fear, although with his familiars he was rather prone to laughter and fond of banter.
29.3.1
But the virtues of Brutus, as we are told, made him beloved by the multitude, adored by his friends, admired by the nobility, and not hated even by his enemies. For he was remarkably gentle and large-minded, free from all anger, pleasurable indulgence, and greed, and kept his purpose erect and unbending in, defence of what was honourable and just.
29.4.1
And the strongest reason for the favour and fame which he achieved was the confidence felt in his principles. For no one had expected that Pompey the Great, if he overthrew Caesar, would insist on dismissing his forces in obedience to the laws, but all thought that he would continue to retain his power, appeasing the people by using the name of consulship or dictatorship or some other less obnoxious form of government.
29.5.1
And now it was thought that Cassius, vehement and passionate man that he was, and often swept from the path of justice by his passion for gain, was incurring the perils of wars and wanderings principally to establish some great power for himself, and not liberty for his countrymen.
29.6.1
For the men of a still earlier time than Pompey and Cassius, men like Cinna and Marius and Carbo, made their country the booty or prize round which they fought, and they all but confessed that they waged war to establish a tyranny.
29.7.1
But Brutus, we are told, was not accused even by his enemies of such a departure from his principles; nay, Antony at least, in the hearing of many, declared that in his opinion Brutus was the only conspirator against Caesar who was impelled by the splendour and by what seemed to him the nobility of the enterprise, whereas the rest banded together against the man because they envied and hated him.
29.8.1
Wherefore Brutus relied not so much on his armies as on his virtuous cause, as is clear from his letters.
29.9.1
When he was already nearing the perilous crisis, he wrote to Atticus that his cause had the fairest outlook that fortune could bestow, for he would either conquer and give liberty to the Roman people, or die and be freed from slavery; and that amid the general security and safety of their lot one thing only was uncertain, namely, whether they were to live as freemen or die.
29.10.1
He says also that Mark Antony was paying a fitting penalty for his folly, since, when it was in his power to be numbered with such men as Brutus and Cassius and Cato, he had given himself to Octavius as a mere appendage;
29.11.1
and that if he should not now be defeated with him, in a little while he would be fighting him. Herein, then, he seems to have been an excellent prophet.
30.1.1
At the time when they were in Smyrna, Brutus asked Cassius to give him a part of the large treasure which he had collected, since he had expended what he had himself in building a fleet large enough to give them control of all the Mediterranean.
30.2.1
The friends of Cassius, then, tried to dissuade him from giving anything to Brutus, arguing that it was not right that what he was keeping by his frugality and getting together at the price of men’s hatred should be taken by Brutus for the winning of popular favour and the gratification of his soldiers. However, Cassius gave him a third of the whole amount.
30.3.1
Then they parted again for their respective undertakings. Cassius took Rhodes, but managed matters there with undue rigour, and that too though he had replied to those who hailed him, when he entered the city, as their lord and king, Neither lord nor king, but, chastiser and slayer of your lord and king. Brutus, on his part, demanded money and soldiers from the Lycians.
30.4.1
But Naucrates, the popular leader, persuaded the cities to revolt, and the inhabitants occupied certain commanding hills in order to prevent the passage of Brutus. Brutus, therefore, in the first place, sent horsemen against them while they were at breakfast, and these slew six hundred of them;
30.5.1
next, he took their strongholds and villages, but dismissed all his captives without ransom, in order that he might win the people over by kindness.
30.6.1
They were obstinate, however, feeding their anger upon their injuries, and despising his clemency and kindness, until he drove the most warlike of them into Xanthus and laid siege to the city.
30.7.1
They tried to escape by swimming under the surface of the river which flowed past the city. But they were caught in nets which were let down deep across the channel; the tops of these had bells attached to them which indicated at once when any one was entangled.
30.8.1
Then the Xanthians made a sally by night and set fire to some of the siege- engines, but they were perceived by the Romans and driven back to their walls; and when a brisk wind fanned the flames back towards the battlements and some of the adjoining houses took fire, Brutus, fearing for the safety of the city, ordered his men to assist in putting out the fire.
31.1.1
But the Lycians were suddenly possessed by a dreadful and indescribable impulse to madness, which can be likened best to a passion for death.
31.2.1
At any rate, all ages of them, freemen and slaves with their wives and children, shot missiles from the walls at the enemy who were helping them to combat the flames, and with their own hands brought up reeds and wood and all manner of combustibles, and so spread the fire over the city, feeding it with all sorts of material and increasing its strength and fury in every way.
31.3.1
When the flames had darted forth and encircled the city on all sides, and blazed out mightily, Brutus, distressed at what was going on, rode round outside the city in his eagerness to help, and with outstretched hands begged the Xanthians to spare and save their city. No one heeded him, however, but all sought in every way to destroy themselves, men and women alike;
31.4.1
nay, even the little children with shouts and shrieks either leaped into the fire, or threw themselves headlong from the walls, or cast themselves beneath their fathers’ swords, baring their throats and begging to be smitten.
31.5.1
After the city had been thus destroyed, a woman was seen dangling in a noose; she had a dead child fastened to her neck, and with a blazing torch was trying to set fire to her dwelling.
31.6.1
So tragic was the spectacle that Brutus could not bear to see it, and burst into tears on hearing of it; he also proclaimed a prize for any soldier who should succeed in saving the life of a Lycian. But there were only a hundred and fifty, we are told, who did not escape such preservation.
31.7.1
So then the Xanthians, after long lapse of time, as though fulfilling a period set by fate for their destruction, had the boldness to renew the calamity of their ancestors; for these too, in the time of the Persian wars, had likewise burned down their city and destroyed themselves.
32.1.1
When Brutus saw that the city of Patara was holding out strongly against him, he hesitated to attack it, and was in perplexity, fearing that it would be afflicted with the same madness; but as he held some of its women prisoners of war, he released them without ransom.
32.2.1
They were the wives and daughters of prominent men, and by rehearsing the praises of Brutus, calling him a man of the greatest moderation and justice, they persuaded them to yield and surrender their city.
32.3.1
Consequently all the rest of the Lycians came and entrusted themselves to him, and found that his goodness and kindness exceeded their hopes.
32.4.1
For whereas Cassius, about the same time, compelled the Rhodians individually to pay in to him all the gold and silver they possessed (thus accumulating about eight hundred talents), and fined the city as a whole five hundred talents more, Brutus exacted only a hundred and fifty talents from the Lycians, and, without doing them any other injury, set out with his army for Ionia.
33.1.1
Many were his memorable achievements in meting out rewards or punishments to those who deserved them, but I shall here describe only that in which both he himself and the chief men of Rome took especial pleasure.
33.2.1
When Pompey the Great, after he had been stripped of his great power by Caesar, put in as a fugitive at Pelusium in Egypt, the guardians of the boy king were holding a council with their friends, at which opinions differed. Some thought they should receive Pompey, others that they should repulse him from Egypt.
33.3.1
But a certain Theodotus, of Chios, who was attached to the king as a paid teacher of rhetoric, and was at this time deemed worthy of a place in the council for lack of better men, declared that both were wrong, both those who would admit and those who would reject Pompey;
33.4.1
for there was but one advantageous course in view of the circumstances, and that was to receive him and put him to death.
33.5.1
And he added, as he closed his speech, A dead man does not bite. The council adopted his opinion, and Pompey the Great lay dead, an example of the unexpected and incredible in human life, and it was the work of Theodotus and his clever rhetoric, as that sophist himself was wont to say with boasting.
33.6.1
A little while afterwards, however, when Caesar came, the other wretches paid the penalty for their crime and perished wretchedly; as for Theodotus, after borrowing from Fortune enough time for a wandering, destitute, and inglorious life, he did not escape the notice of Brutus, who at this time traversed Asia, but was brought to him and punished, and won more fame for his death than for his life.
34.1.1
Brutus now summoned Cassius to Sardis, as he drew near, went to meet him with his friends; and the whole army, in full array, saluted them both as Imperators.
34.2.1
But, as is wont to be the case in great undertakings where there are many friends and commanders, mutual charges and accusations had passed between them, and therefore, immediately after their march and before they did anything else, they met in a room by themselves. The doors were locked, and, with no one by, they indulged in fault-finding first, then in rebukes and denunciations.
34.3.1
After this, they were swept along into passionate speeches and tears, and their friends, amazed at the harshness and intensity of their anger, feared some untoward result; they were, however, forbidden to approach.
34.4.1
But Marcus Favonius, who had become a devotee of Cato, and was more impetuous and frenzied than reasonable in his pursuit of philosophy, tried to go in to them, and was prevented by their servants.
34.5.1
It was no easy matter, however, to stop Favonius when he sprang to do anything, for he was always vehement and rash. The fact that he was a Roman senator was of no importance in his eyes, and by the cynical boldness of his speech he often took away its offensiveness, and therefore men put up with his impertinence as a joke.
34.6.1
And so at this time he forced his way through the bystanders and entered the room, reciting in an affected voice the verses wherein Homer represents Nestor as saying:— But do ye harken to me, for ye both are younger than I am, and so forth.
34.7.1
At this Cassius burst out laughing; but Brutus drove Favonius out of the room, calling him a mere dog, and a counterfeit Cynic. However, at the time, this incident put an end to their quarrel, and they separated at once.
34.8.1
Furthermore, Cassius gave a supper, to which Brutus invited his friends. And as the guests were already taking their places at the feast, Favonius came, fresh from his bath. Brutus protested that he had come without an invitation, and ordered the servants to conduct him to the uppermost couch; but Favonius forced his way past them and reclined upon the central one. And over the wine mirth and jest abounded, seasoned with wit and philosophy.
35.1.1
But on the following day Lucius Pella, a Roman who had been praetor and had enjoyed the confidence of Brutus, being denounced by the Sardians as an embezzler of the public moneys, was condemned by Brutus and disgraced;
35.2.1
and the matter vexed Cassius beyond measure. For a few days before, when two friends of his had been convicted of the same misdeeds, he had privately admonished them but publicly acquitted them, and continued to employ them.
35.3.1
He therefore found fault with Brutus on the ground that he was too observant of law and justice at a time which demanded a policy of kindness.
35.4.1
But Brutus bade him remember the Ides of March, on which they had slain Caesar, not because he was himself plundering everybody, but because he enabled others to do this;
35.5.1
since, if there is any good excuse for neglecting justice, it had been better for us to endure the friends of Caesar than to suffer our own to do wrong.
35.6.1
For in the one case, said he, we should have had the reputation of cowardice merely; but now, in addition to our toils and perils, we are deemed unjust. Such were the principles of Brutus.
36.1.1
When they were about to cross over from Asia, Brutus is said to have had a great sign.
36.2.1
He was naturally wakeful, and by practice and self-restraint had reduced his hours of sleep to few, never lying down by day, and by night only when he could transact no business nor converse with any one, since all had gone to rest.
36.3.1
At this time, however, when the war was begun and he had in his hands the conduct of a life and death struggle, and was anxiously forecasting the future, he would first doze a little in the evening after eating, and then would spend the rest of the night on urgent business.
36.4.1
But whenever he had fully met the demands of such business in shorter time, he would read a book until the third watch, at which hour the centurions and tribunes usually came to him.
36.5.1
Once, accordingly, when he was about to take his army across from Asia, it was very late at night, his tent was dimly lighted, and all the camp was wrapped in silence.
36.6.1
Then, as he was meditating and reflecting, he thought he heard some one coming into the tent. He turned his eyes towards the entrance and beheld a strange and dreadful apparition, a monstrous and fearful shape standing silently by his side.
36.7.1
Plucking up courage to question it, Who art thou, said he, of gods or men, and what is thine errand with me? Then the phantom answered: I am thy evil genius, Brutus, and thou shalt see me at Philippi. And Brutus, undisturbed, said: I shall see thee.
37.1.1
When the shape had disappeared, Brutus called his servants; but they declared that they had neither heard any words nor seen any apparition, and so he watched the night out. As soon as it was day, however, he sought out Cassius and told him of the apparition.
37.2.1
Cassius, who belonged to the school of Epicurus, and was in the habit of taking issue on such topics with Brutus, said: This is our doctrine, Brutus, that we do not really feel or see everything, but perception by the senses is a pliant and deceitful thing, and besides, the intelligence is very keen to change and transform the thing perceived into any and every shape from one which has no real existence.
37.3.1
An impression on the senses is like wax, and the soul of man, in which the plastic material and the plastic power alike exist, can very easily shape and embellish it at pleasure.
37.4.1
This is clear from the transformations which occur in dreams, where slight initial material is transformed by the imagination into all sorts of emotions and shapes.
37.5.1
The imagination is by nature in perpetual motion, and this motion which it has is fancy, or thought. In thy case, too, the body is worn with hardships and this condition naturally excites and perverts the intelligence.
37.6.1
As for genii, it is incredible either that they exist, or, if they do exist, that they have the appearance or the speech of men, or a power that extends to us. For my part, I could wish it were so, in order that not only our men-at-arms, and horses, and ships, which are so numerous, but also the assistance of the gods might give us courage, conducting as we do the fairest and holiest enterprises. With such discourse did Cassius seek to calm Brutus.
37.7.1
Furthermore, as the soldiers were embarking, two eagles perched upon the foremost standards and were borne along with them, and they kept the army company, being fed by the soldiers, as far as Philippi. There, only one day before the battle, they flew away.
38.1.1
Most of the peoples encountered on the march Brutus had already brought into subjection; and now, whatever city or potentate had been omitted, they won them all over, and advanced as far as the Thasian sea.
38.2.1
There Norbanus and his army were encamped, at what were called The Narrows, and near Symbolum; but they surrounded him and compelled him to withdraw and abandon his positions.
38.3.1
They almost captured his forces, too, since Octavius was delayed by sickness; and they would have done so had not Antony come to his aid with such astonishing swiftness that Brutus could not believe in it.
38.4.1
Octavius came, however, ten days later, and encamped over against Brutus, while Antony faced Cassius. The plains between the armies the Romans call Campi Philippi,
38.5.1
and Roman forces of such size had never before encountered one another. In numbers the army of Brutus was much inferior to that of Octavius, but in the splendid decoration of its arms it presented a wonderful sight.
38.6.1
For most of their armour was covered with gold and silver, with which Brutus had lavishly supplied them, although in other matters he accustomed his officers to adopt a temperate and restricted regimen.
38.7.1
But he thought that the wealth which they held in their hands and wore upon their persons gave additional spirit to the more ambitious, and made the covetous even more warlike, since they clung to their armour as so much treasure.
39.1.1
Octavius and Antony now made a lustration of their armies in their camps, and then distributed a little meal and five drachmas to every man for a sacrifice;
39.2.1
but Brutus and Cassius, despising their enemies’ poverty or parsimony, first made lustration of their armies in the open field, as the custom is, and then distributed great numbers of cattle for sacrifice among their cohorts, and fifty drachmas to every soldier, and thus, in the goodwill and zeal of their forces, they were at an advantage.
39.3.1
However, it was thought that Cassius had a baleful sign during the lustration; for the lictor brought him his wreath turned upside down.
39.4.1
And it is said that before this, also, in a procession at some festival, a golden Victory belonging to Cassius, which was being borne along, fell to the ground, its bearer having slipped.
39.5.1
And besides, many carrion birds hovered over the camp daily, and swarms of bees were seen clustering at a certain place inside the camp;
39.6.1
this place the soothsayers shut off from the rest of the camp, in order to avert by their rites the superstitious fears which were gradually carrying even Cassius himself away from his Epicurean doctrines, and which had altogether subjugated his soldiers.
39.7.1
For these reasons Cassius was not eager to have the issue decided by battle at present, but thought it best to protract the war, since they were strong financially, although inferior in the number of their arms and men.
39.8.1
Brutus, however, even before this had been anxious to have the issue decided by the speediest of hazards, that he might either restore freedom to his country, or relieve mankind of calamitous expenditures and requisitions for military service. At this time, too, he saw that his horsemen were successful and victorious in the preliminary skirmishes, and was therefore lifted up in spirit.
39.9.1
Besides, sundry desertions to the enemy, and suspicions and assertions that others would follow, brought many of the friends of Cassius in the council over to the side of Brutus.
39.10.1
But one of the friends of Brutus, Atillius, opposed his wishes, and urged delay till winter at least was past. And when Brutus asked him how he thought he would be better off another year, If in no other way, said Atillius, I shall have lived longer.
39.11.1
At this answer Cassius was vexed, and the rest also were not a little annoyed by Atillius. So it was presently decided to give battle on the next day.
40.1.1
Brutus was full of hopefulness at supper, and after engaging in philosophical discussion, went to rest; but Cassius, as Messala tells us, supped in private with a few of his intimates, and was seen to be silent and pensive, contrary to his usual nature.
40.2.1
When supper was over, he grasped Messala’s hand warmly, and, speaking in Greek, as was his custom when he would show affection, said:
40.3.1
I call thee to witness, Messala, that I am in the same plight as Pompey the Great, in that I am forced to hazard the fate of my country on the issue of a single battle. With good courage, however, let us fix our waiting eyes on Fortune, of whom, even though our counsels be infirm, it is not right that we should be distrustful.
40.4.1
With these last words to him, Messala says, Cassius embraced him; and he had already invited him to supper on the following day, which was his birthday.
40.5.1
As soon as it was day, a scarlet tunic, the signal for battle, was displayed before the camps of Brutus and Cassius, and they themselves came together into the space between their armies Here Cassius said:
40.6.1
May we be victorious, Brutus, and ever afterwards share a mutual prosperity; but since the most important of human affairs are most uncertain, and since, if the battle goes contrary to our wishes, we shall not easily see one another again, what is thy feeling about flight and death?
40.7.1
And Brutus made answer: When I was a young man, Cassius, and without experience of the world, I was led, I know not how, to speak too rashly for a philosopher. I blamed Cato for making away with himself, on the ground that it was impious and unmanly to yield to one’s evil genius, not accepting fearlessly whatever befalls, but running away.
40.8.1
In my present fortunes, however, I am become of a different mind; and if God does not decide the present issue in our favour, do not ask once more to put fresh hopes and preparations to the test, but I will go hence with words of praise for Fortune; on the Ides of March I gave my own life to my country, and since their, for her sake, I have lived another life of liberty and glory.
40.9.1
At these words Cassius smiled, and after embracing Brutus, said: Thus minded, let us go against the enemy; for either we shall be victorious, or we shall not fear the victors.
40.10.1
After this, they conferred together about the order of battle in the presence of their friends. And Brutus asked Cassius that he might have command of the right wing himself, although his years and experience made this post seem more appropriate for Cassius.
40.11.1
However, Cassius not only granted him this favour, but also ordered Messala with the most warlike of the legions to take position on the right.
40.12.1
Brutus at once led out his horsemen magnificently equipped, and with no less promptness put his infantry also in array.

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