Dio Cassius, Histories

§ 43.37.1 Thereupon the allies on both sides were quietly routed and fled; but the legions themselves struggled in close combat to the utmost in their resistance of each other. Not a man of them would yield; they remained in their places slaying and perishing, as if each individual were to be responsible to all the rest as well for the issue of victory or defeat. 2 Consequently they were not concerned to see how their allies were battling, but fought as eagerly as if they alone were struggling. Neither sound of paean nor groan was to be heard from any one of them, but both sides merely shouted “Strike! Kill!”, while their deeds easily outran their words.

§ 43.37.3 Caesar and Pompey, who witnessed these struggles from horseback from certain elevated positions, had no ground for either hope or despair, but, with their minds torn by doubts, were equally distressed by confidence and by fear. 4 The battle was so evenly balanced that they suffered tortures at the sight as they strained to spy out some advantage, and shrank from discovering some setback. In mind, too, they suffered tortures, as they prayed for success and against misfortune, alternating between strength and fear. Therefore they were unable to endure it long, but leaped from their horses and joined in the conflict.

§ 43.37.5 Thus they preferred to share in it by personal exertion and danger rather than by tension of spirit, and each hoped by his participation in the fight to turn the scale somehow in favour of his own troops; or, failing that, they wished to die with them.

§ 43.38.1 The leaders, then, took part in the battle themselves; yet no advantage came of this to either army. On the contrary, when the men saw their chiefs sharing their danger, a far greater disregard for their own death and eagerness for the destruction of their opponents seized both alike. 2 Accordingly neither side for the moment turned to flight, but, matched in determination, they proved also to be matched in physical strength. All would have perished or at nightfall they would have parted with honours even, had not Bogud, who was somewhere outside the conflict, set out for Pompey's camp, whereupon Labienus, observing this, left his station and proceeded against him.

§ 43.38.3 Pompey's men, then, supposing him to be in flight, lost heart; and though later, of course, they learned the truth, they could no longer recover themselves. Some fled to the city, some to the rampart. The latter body vigorously fought off their assailants and fell only when attacked from all sides, 4 while the former long held the wall safe, so that it was not captured till all had perished in sallies. So great was the total loss of Romans on both sides that the victors, at a loss how to wall in the city to prevent any from running away in the night, actually heaped up the bodies of the dead around it.

§ 43.39.1 Caesar, having thus conquered, straightway took Corduba also. For Sextus had retired out of his way and the natives came over to his side, although their slaves, since they had been made free, resisted them. 2 He slew the slaves under arms and sold the rest. And he adopted the same course also with those who held Hispalis; for they had at first pretended to accept a garrison from him willingly, but afterwards destroyed the soldiers who came there, and entered upon war.

§ 43.39.3 So he made a campaign against them, and by appearing to conduct the siege in a rather careless fashion he gave them some hope of being able to escape. After this he would allow them to come outside the wall, where he would ambush and destroy them in this way he captured the town, which had been gradually stripped of its men. 4 Later he acquired Munda and the other places, some against their will and others of their own accord. He levied tribute so rigorously that he did not even spare the offerings consecrated to Hercules in Gades; and he also took land from some cities and laid an added tribute upon others.

§ 43.39.5 This was his course toward those who had opposed him; but to those who had displayed any good-will toward him he granted lands and exemption from taxation, to some also citizenship, and to others the status of Roman colonists; he did not, however, grant these favours for nothing.

§ 43.40 While Caesar was thus occupied, Pompey, who had escaped in the rout, reached the sea, intending to use the fleet that lay at anchor at Carteia, but found that the men had gone over to the victor's side. 2 He then embarked on a vessel, expecting to escape in this manner; but being wounded in the course of the attempt, he lost heart and put back to land, and then, taking with him some men who had assembled, set out for the interior. He met Caesennius Lento and was defeated; and taking refuge in a wood, perished there. Didius, ignorant of his fate, while wandering about in the hope of meeting him somewhere, met some other troops and perished.

§ 43.41.1 Caesar, too, would doubtless have chosen to fall there, at the hands of those who were still resisting and amid the glory of war, in preference to the fate he met not long afterward of being murdered in his own land and in the senate at the hands of his dearest friends. 2 For this was the last war that he carried through successfully, and this the last victory that he won, in spite of the fact that there was no other project so great that he did not hope to accomplish it. In this hope he was confirmed especially by the circumstance that from a palm that stood on the site of the battle a shoot grew out immediately after the victory.

§ 43.41.3 Now I do not assert that this had no bearing in some direction, yet it was no longer for him, but for his sister's grandson, Octavius; for the latter was making the campaign with him, and was destined to gain great lustre from his toils and dangers. As Caesar did not know this, and hoped that many successes would still fall to his own lot, he showed no moderation, but was filled with arrogance, as if immortal.

§ 43.42.1 For, although he had conquered no foreign nation, but had destroyed a vast number of citizens, he not only celebrated the triumph himself, incidentally feasting the entire populace once more, as if in honour of some common blessing, but also allowed Quintus Fabius and Quintus Pedius to hold a celebration, although they had merely been his lieutenants and had achieved no individual success. 2 Naturally this occasioned ridicule, as did also the fact that they used wooden instead of ivory representations of certain achievements together with other similar triumphal apparatus. Nevertheless, most brilliant triple triumphs and triple processions of the Romans were held in honour of those very events, and furthermore a thanksgiving of fifty days was observed.

§ 43.42.3 The Parilia was honoured by permanent annual games in the Circus, yet not at all because the city had been founded on that very day, but because the news of Caesar's victory had arrived the day before, toward evening.

§ 43.43.1 Such was his gift to Rome. For himself, he wore the triumphal garb, by decree, at all the games, and was adorned with the laurel crown always and everywhere alike. The excuse that he gave for it was that his forehead was bald; yet he gave occasion for talk by this very circumstance that at that time, though well past youth, he still bestowed attention upon his appearance. 2 He used to show among all men his pride in rather loose clothing, and the footwear which he used later on was sometimes high and of a reddish colour, after the style of the kings who had once reigned in Alba, for he claimed that he was related to them through Iulus.

§ 43.43.3 In general he was absolutely devoted to Venus, and was anxious to persuade everybody that he had received from her a kind of bloom of youth. Accordingly he used also to wear a carven image of her in full armour on his ring and he made her name his watchword in almost all the greatest dangers. 4 Sulla had looked askance at the looseness of his girdle, so much so that he had wished to kill him, and declared to those who begged him off: “Well, I will grant him to you; but be thoroughly on your guard against this ill-girt fellow.” And Cicero could not comprehend it,

§ 43.43.5 but even in the moment of defeat said: “I should never have expected one so ill-girt to have conquered Pompey.” This I have written by way of digression from my history, so that no one might be ignorant of any of the stories told about Caesar.

§ 43.44.1 In honour of his victory the senate passed all those decrees that I have mentioned, and further called him “Liberator,” entering it also in the records, and voted for a public temple of Liberty. 2 Moreover, they now applied to him first and for the first time, as a kind of proper name, the title of imperator, no longer merely following the ancient custom by which others as well as Caesar had often been saluted as a result of their wars, nor even as those who received some independent command or other authority were called by this name, but giving him once for all the same title that is now granted to those who hold successively the supreme power.

§ 43.44.3 And such excessive flattery did they employ as even to vote that his sons and grandsons should be given the same title, though he had no child and was already an old man. From him this title has come down to all subsequent emperors, as one peculiar to their office, just like the title “ Caesar.” 4 The ancient custom has not, however, been thereby overthrown, but both usages exist side by side. Consequently the emperors are invested with it a second time when they gain some such victory as has been mentioned. For those who are imperatores in the special sense use this title once, as they do the other titles, and place it before the others;

§ 43.44.5 but those of them who also accomplish in war some deed worthy of it acquire also the title handed down by ancient custom, so that a man is termed imperator a second or a third time, or as many more times as the occasion may arise. 6 These privileges they granted then to Caesar, as well as a house, so that he might live in state property, and a special thanksgiving whenever any victory should occur and sacrifices should be offered for it, even if he had not been on the campaign or had any hand at all in the achievements.

§ 43.45.1 Nevertheless, these measures, even though they seemed to some immoderate and contrary to precedent, were not thus far undemocratic. But the senate passed the following decrees besides, by which they declared him a monarch out and out. For they offered him the magistracies, even those belonging to the plebs, and elected him consul for ten years, as they previously made him dictator. 2 They ordered that he alone should have soldiers, and alone administer the public funds, so that no one else should be allowed to employ either of them, save whom he permitted. And they decreed at this time that an ivory statue of him, and later that a whole chariot, should appear in the procession at the games in the Circus, together with the statues of the gods.

§ 43.45.3 Another likeness they set up in the temple of Quirinus with the inscription, “To the Invincible God,” and another on the Capitol beside the former kings of Rome. 4 Now it occurs to me to marvel at the coincidence: there were eight such statues, — seven to the kings, and an eighth to the Brutus who overthrew the Tarquins, — and they set up the statue of Caesar beside the last of these; and it was from this cause chiefly that the other Brutus, Marcus, was roused to plot against him.

§ 43.46.1 These were the measures that were passed in honour of his victory (I do not mention all, but as many as have seemed to me notable), not in one day, to be sure, but just as it happened, at different times. Caesar began to avail himself of some, and was intending to use others in the future, however emphatically he declined some of them. 2 Thus he took the office of consul immediately, even before entering the city, but did not hold it through the whole year; instead, when he got to Rome he renounced it, turning it over to Quintus Fabius and Gaius Trebonius.

§ 43.46.3 When Fabius died on the last day of his consulship, he straightway named another man, Gaius Caninius Rebilus, in his place for the remaining hours. This was the first violation of precedent at this time, that one and the same man did not hold that office for a year or even for all the rest of the same year, but while living withdrew from it without compulsion from either ancestral custom or any accusation, and another took his place. 4 Again, there was the fact that Caninius was appointed consul, served, and ceased to serve all at the same time. Hence Cicero jestingly remarked that the consul had displayed such great bravery and prudence in office as never to fall asleep in it for the briefest moment.

§ 43.46.5 So after that period the same persons no longer (except a few in the beginning) acted as consuls through the whole year, but according to circumstances, some for a longer time, some for a shorter, some for months, others for days; indeed, at the present time no one serves with any one else, as a rule, for a whole year or for a longer period than two months. 6 In general we consuls to-day do not differ from one another, but the naming of the years is the privilege of those who are consuls at the beginning. Accordingly, in the case of the other consuls I shall name only those who were closely connected with the events mentioned, but in order to secure perfect clearness with regard to the succession of events, I shall mention also those who first held office in each year, even if they make no contribution to its events.

§ 43.47.1 While the consuls were appointed in this manner, the remaining magistrates were nominally elected by the plebs and by the whole people, in accordance with ancestral custom, since Caesar would not accept the appointment of them; yet really they were appointed by him, and were sent out to the provinces without casting lots. 2 As for their number, all were the same as before, except that fourteen praetors and forty quaestors were appointed. For, since he had made many promises to many people, he had no other way to reward them, and hence took this method.

§ 43.47.3 Furthermore, he enrolled a vast number in the senate, making no distinction whether a man was a soldier or the son of a freedman, so that the sum of them grew to nine hundred; and he enrolled many also among the patricians and among the ex-consuls and such as had held some other office. 4 He released some who were on trial for bribery and were being proved guilty, so that he was charged with bribe-taking himself. This report was strengthened by the fact that he also put up at auction all the public lands, not only the profane, but also the consecrated lots, and sold most of them.

§ 43.47.5 Nevertheless, he granted ample gifts to some persons in the form of money or the sale of lands; and in the case of a certain Lucius Basilius, who was praetor, instead of assigning him a province he bestowed a large amount of money upon him, so that Basilius became notorious both on this account as well as because, when insulted during his praetorship by Caesar, he had held out against him. 6 All this suited those citizens who were receiving or even expecting to receive something, since they had no regard for the public weal in comparison with the chance of the moment for their own advancement by such means. But all the rest took it greatly to heart and had much to say about it to each other and also — as many as felt safe in so doing — in outspoken utterances and the publication of anonymous pamphlets.

§ 43.48.1 In addition to these measures carried out that year, two of the city prefects took charge of the finances, since no quaestor had been elected. For just as on former occasions, so now in the absence of Caesar, the prefects managed all the affairs of the city, in conjunction with Lepidus as master of the horse. 2 And although they were censured for employing lictors and the magisterial garb and chair precisely like the master of the horse, they got off by citing a certain law which allowed all those with receiving any office from a dictator to make use of such trappings.

§ 43.48.3 The administration of the finances, after being diverted at this time for the reasons I have mentioned, was no longer invariably assigned to the quaestors, but was finally assigned to ex-praetors. Two of the city prefects then managed the public treasuries, and one of them celebrated the Ludi Apollinares at Caesar's cost. 4 The plebeian aediles conducted the Ludi Megalenses in accordance with a decree. A certain prefect, appointed during the Feriae, himself chose a successor on the following day, and the latter a third; this had never happened before, nor did it happen again.

§ 43.49.1 These were the events at this time. The next year, during which Caesar was at once dictator for the fifth time, with Lepidus as the master of the horse, and consul for the fifth time, choosing Antony as his colleague, sixteen praetors were in power, — a custom, indeed, that was continued for many years, — and the Rostra, which was formerly in the centre of the Forum, was moved back to its present position; also the statues of Sulla and of Pompey were restored to it. 2 For this Caesar received praise, and also because he yielded to Antony both the glory of the work and the inscription on it. Being anxious to build a theatre, as Pompey had done, he laid the foundations, but did not finish it; it was Augustus who later completed it and named it for his nephew, Marcus Marcellus.

§ 43.49.3 But Caesar was blamed for tearing down the dwellings and temples on the site, and likewise because he burned up the statues, which were almost all of wood, and because on finding large hoards of money he appropriated them all.

§ 43.50.1 Besides this, he introduced laws and extended the pomerium; in these and other matters his course was thought to resemble that of Sulla. Caesar, however, removed the ban from the survivors of those who had warred against him, granting them immunity on fair and uniform terms; 2 he promoted them to office; to the wives of the slain he restored their dowries, and to their children he granted a share of the property, thus putting Sulla's cruelty mightily to shame and gaining for himself a great reputation not alone for bravery but also for goodness, although it is generally a difficult thing for the same man to excel both in war and in peace.

§ 43.50.3 This was a source of pride to him, as was also the fact that he had restored again Carthage and Corinth. To be sure, there were many other cities in and outside of Italy which he had either rebuilt or founded anew; 4 still, other men had done as much. But in the case of Corinth and Carthage, those ancient, brilliant, and distinguished cities which had been laid in ruins, he not only colonized them, in that he regarded them as colonies of the Romans, but also restored them in memory of their former inhabitants, in that he honoured them with their ancient names;

§ 43.50.5 for he bore no grudge, on account of the hostility of those peoples, towards places that had never harmed the Romans. So these cities, even as they had once been demolished together, now began to revive together and bade fair to flourish once more.

§ 43.51.1 But while Caesar was thus engaged, a longing came over all the Romans alike to avenge Crassus and those who had perished with him, and they felt some hope of subjugating the Parthians then, if ever. They unanimously voted the command of the war to Caesar, and made ample provision for it. 2 Among other details, they decided that he should have a generous number of assistants, and also, in order that the city should neither be without officials in his absence nor, again, by attempting to choose some on its own responsibility, fall into strife, that the magistrates should be appointed in advance for three years, this being the length of time they thought necessary for the campaign. Nevertheless, they did not designate them all beforehand.

§ 43.51.3 Nominally Caesar chose half of them, having a certain legal right to do this, but in reality he chose the whole number. For the first year, as previously, forty quaestors were elected, and now for the first time two patrician aediles as well as four from the plebs. Of the latter two have their title from Ceres, a custom which, then introduced, has remained to the present day. 4 And praetors were appointed to the number of sixteen; it is not of this, however, that I would write, since there had formerly been just as many, but of the fact that among those chosen was Publius Ventidius. He was originally from Picenum, as has been remarked, and fought against Rome when her allies were at war with her.

§ 43.51.5 He was captured by Pompeius Strabo, and marched in chains in that general's triumph. Later he was released and subsequently was enrolled in the senate, and now was appointed praetor by Caesar; and he went on advancing until he finally conquered the Parthians and held a triumph over them. 6 All were thus appointed in advance who were to hold office the first year after that, but for the second year only the consuls and tribunes; so far were they from appointing anybody for the third year.

§ 43.51.7 Caesar himself intended to be dictator both years, and designated as masters of the horse another man and Octavius, though the latter was at that time a mere lad. 8 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.

§ 43.51.9 For owing favours, as he did, to many persons, he repaid them by such appointments as these and by priesthoods, adding one man to the Quindecemviri, and three others to the Septemviri, as they were called.

§ 44.1 Book XLIV 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 2 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.

§ 44.2.1 Democracy, indeed, has a fair-appearing name and conveys the impression of bringing equal rights to all through equal laws, but its results are seen not to agree at all with its title. Monarchy, on the contrary, has an unpleasant sound, but is a most practical form of government to live under. For it is easier to find a single excellent man than many of them, 2 and if even this seems to some a difficult feat, it is quite inevitable that the other alternative should be acknowledged to be impossible; for it does not belong to the majority of men to acquire virtue. And again, even though a base man should obtain supreme power, yet he is preferable to the masses of like character, as the history of the Greeks and barbarians and of the Romans themselves proves.

§ 44.2.3 For successes have always been greater and more frequent in the case both of cities and of individuals under kings than under popular rule, and disasters do not happen so frequently under monarchies as under mob-rule. Indeed, if ever there has been a prosperous democracy, it has in any case been at its best for only a brief period, so long, that is, as the people had neither the numbers nor the strength sufficient to cause insolence to spring up among them as the result of good fortune or jealousy as the result of ambition. 4 But for a city, not only so large in itself, but also ruling the finest and the greatest part of the known world, holding sway over men of many and diverse natures, possessing many men of great wealth, occupied with every imaginable pursuit, enjoying every imaginable fortune, both individually and collectively, — for such a city, I say, to practise moderation under a democracy is impossible, and still more is it impossible for the people, unless moderation prevails, to be harmonious.

§ 44.2.5 Therefore, if Marcus Brutus and Gaius Cassius had only reflected upon these things, they would never have killed the city's head and protector nor have made themselves the cause of countless ills both to themselves and to all the rest of mankind then living.

§ 44.3.1 It happened as follows, and his death was due to the cause now to be given. He had aroused dislike that was not altogether unjustified, except in so far as it was the senators themselves who had by their novel and excessive honours encouraged him and puffed him up, only to find fault with him on this very account and to spread slanderous reports how glad he was to accept them and how he behaved more haughtily as a result of them. 2 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.

§ 44.3.3 He neither dared, of course, to thrust them all aside, for fear of being thought contemptuous, nor, again, could he be safe in accepting them; for excessive honour and praise render even the most modest men conceited, especially if they seem to be bestowed with sincerity.

§ 44.4.1 The privileges that were granted him, in addition to all those mentioned, were as follows in number and nature; for I shall name them all together, even if they were not all proposed or passed at one time. 2 First, then, they voted that he should always ride, even in the city itself, wearing the triumphal dress, and should sit in his chair of state everywhere except at the games; for at those he received the privilege of watching the contests from the tribunes' benches in company with those who were tribunes at the time.

§ 44.4.3 And they gave him the right to offer spolia opima, as they are called, at the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, as if he had slain some hostile general with his own hand, and to have lictors who always carried laurel, and after the Feriae Latinae to ride from the Alban Mount into the city on horseback. 4 In addition to these remarkable privileges they named him father of his country, stamped this title on the coinage, voted to celebrate his birthday by public sacrifice, ordered that he should have a statue in the cities and in all the temples of Rome,

§ 44.4.5 and they set up two also on the Rostra, one representing him as the saviour of the citizens and the other as the deliverer of the city from siege, and wearing the crowns customary for such achievements. They also resolved to build a temple of Concordia Nova, on the ground that it was through his efforts that they enjoyed peace, and to celebrate an annual festival in her honour.

§ 44.5.1 When he had accepted these, they assigned to him the charge of filling the Pomptine marshes, cutting a canal through the Peloponnesian isthmus, and constructing a new senate-house, since that of Hostilius, although repaired, had been demolished. 2 The reason assigned for its destruction was that a temple of Felicitas was to be built there, which Lepidus, indeed, brought to completion while master of the horse; but their real purpose was that the name of Sulla should not be preserved on it, and that another senate-house, newly constructed, might be named the Julian, even as they had called the month in which he was born July, and one of the tribes, selected by lot, the Julian.

§ 44.5.3 And they voted that Caesar should be sole censor for life and should enjoy the immunities granted to the tribunes, so that if any one insulted him by deed or word, that man should be an outlaw and accursed, and further that Caesar's son, should he beget or even adopt one, should be appointed high priest.

§ 44.6.1 As he seemed to like all this, a gilded chair was granted him, and a garb that the kings had once used, and 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. 2 Next they bestowed upon him a quadrennial festival, as to a hero, and a third priestly college, which they called the Julian, as overseers of the Lupercalia, and one special day of his own each time in connection with all gladiatorial combats both in Rome and the rest of Italy.

§ 44.6.3 When he showed himself pleased with these honours also, they accordingly voted that his golden chair and his crown set with precious gems and overlaid with gold should be carried into the theatres in the same manner as those of the gods, and that on the occasion of the games in the Circus his chariot should be brought in. And finally they addressed him outright as Jupiter Julius and ordered a temple to be consecrated to him and to his Clemency, electing Antony as their priest like some flamen Dialis.

§ 44.7.1 At the same time with these measures they passed another which most clearly indicated their disposition it gave him the right to place his tomb within the pomerium; and the decrees regarding this matter they inscribed in golden letters on silver tablets and deposited beneath the feet of Jupiter Capitolinus, thus pointing out to him very clearly that he was a mortal. 2 When they had begun to honour him, it was with the idea, of course, that he would be reasonable; but as they went on and saw that he was delighted with what they voted, — indeed he accepted all but a very few of their decrees, — different men at different times kept proposing various extravagant honours, some in a spirit of exaggerated flattery and others by way of ridicule.

§ 44.7.3 At any rate, some actually ventured to suggest permitting him to have intercourse with as many women as he pleased, because even at this time, though fifty years old, he still had numerous mistresses. Others, and they were the majority, followed this course because they wished to make him envied and hated as quickly as possible, that he might the sooner perish. 4 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.

§ 44.8.1 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; 2 for they transacted such business in his absence, in order to have the appearance of doing it, not under compulsion, but voluntarily. And either by some heaven-sent fatuity or even through excess of joy he received them sitting, which aroused so great indignation among them all, not only the senators but all the rest, that it afforded his slayers one of their chief excuses for their plot against him.

§ 44.8.3 Some who subsequently tried to defend him claimed, it is true, that owing to an attack of diarrhoea he could not control the movement of his bowels and so had remained where he was in order to avoid a flux. They were not able, however, to convince the majority, since not long afterwards he rose up and went home on foot; 4 hence most men suspected him of being inflated with pride and hated him for his haughtiness, when it was they themselves who had made him disdainful by the exaggerated character of their honours. After this occurrence, striking as it was, he increased the suspicion by permitting himself somewhat later to be chosen dictator for life.

§ 44.9.1 When he had reached this point, the men who were plotting against him hesitated no longer, but in order to embitter even his best friends against him, they did their best to traduce him, finally saluting him as king, a name which they often used also among themselves. 2 When he kept refusing the title and rebuking in a way those who thus accosted him, yet did nothing by which it would be thought that he was really displeased at it, they secretly adorned his statue, which stood on the Rostra, with a diadem.

§ 44.9.3 And when the tribunes, Gaius Epidius Marullus and Lucius Caesetius Flavus, took it down, he became violently angry, although they uttered no word of abuse and moreover actually praised him before the populace as not wanting anything of the sort. For the time being, though vexed, he held his peace.

§ 44.10.1 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. 2 And though for the moment he did them no harm, yet later, when they issued a proclamation declaring that they were unable to speak their mind freely and safely on behalf of the public good, he became exceedingly angry and brought them into the senate-house where he accused them and put their conduct to the vote.

§ 44.10.3 He did not put them to death, though some declared them worthy even of that penalty, but he first removed them from the tribuneship, on the motion of Helvius Cinna, their colleague, and then erased their names from the senate. Some were pleased at this, or pretended to be, thinking they would have no need to incur danger by speaking out freely, and since they were not themselves involved in the business, they could view events as from a watch tower. 4 Caesar, however, received an ill name from this fact also, that, where he should have hated those who applied to him the name of king, he let them go and found fault with the tribunes instead.

§ 44.11.1 Another thing that happened not long after these events proved still more clearly that, although he pretended to shun the title, in reality he desired to assume it. 2 For when he had entered the Forum at the festival of the Lupercalia and was sitting on the Rostra in his gilded chair, adorned with the royal apparel and resplendent in his crown overlaid with gold, Antony with his fellow-priests saluted him as king and binding a diadem upon his head, said: “The people offer this to you through me.”

§ 44.11.3 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. 4 After this certain men at the elections proposed for consuls the tribunes previously mentioned, and they not only privately approached Marcus Brutus and such other persons as were proud-spirited and attempted to persuade them, but also tried to incite them to action publicly.

§ 44.12.1 Making the most of his having the same name as the great Brutus who overthrew the Tarquins, they scattered broadcast many pamphlets, declaring that he was not truly that man's descendant; for the older Brutus had put to death both his sons, the only ones he had, when they were mere lads, and left no offspring whatever. 2 Nevertheless, the majority pretended to accept such a relationship, in order that Brutus, as a kinsman of that famous man, might be induced to perform deeds as great. They kept continually calling upon him, shouting out “ Brutus, Brutus!” and adding further “We need a Brutus.”

§ 44.12.3 Finally on the statue of the early Brutus they wrote “Would that thou wert living!” and upon the tribunal of the living Brutus (for he was praetor at the time and this is the name given to the seat on which the praetor sits in judgment) “ Brutus, thou sleepest,” and “Thou art not Brutus.”

§ 44.13.1 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. 2 For she came upon him while he was pondering over these very matters and asked him why he was so thoughtful. When he made no answer, she suspected that she was distrusted on account of her physical weakness, for fear she might reveal something, however unwillingly, under torture; hence she ventured to do a noteworthy deed.

§ 44.13.3 She secretly inflicted a wound upon her own thigh, to test herself and see if she could endure torture. And as soon as the first intense pain was past, she despised the wound, and coming to him, said: “You, my husband, though you trusted my spirit that it would not betray you, nevertheless were distrustful of my body, and your feeling was but human. But I found that my body also can keep silence.” 4 With these words she disclosed her thigh, and making known the reason for what she had done, she said: “Therefore fear not, but tell me all you are concealing from me, for neither fire, nor lashes, nor goads will force me to divulge a word; I was not born to that extent a woman. Hence, if you still distrust me, it is better for me to die than to live; otherwise let no one think me longer the daughter of Cato or your wife.”

§ 44.14.1 Hearing this, Brutus marvelled; and he no longer hid anything from her, but felt strengthened himself and related to her the whole plot. 2 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's 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.

§ 44.14.3 There is no need to give a full list of the names, for I might thus become wearisome, but I cannot omit to mention Trebonius and Decimus Brutus, who was also called Junius and Albinus. 4 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.

§ 44.15.1 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. 2 The second reason was their delay; for they stood in awe of him, for all their hatred of him, and kept putting the matter off, fearing, in spite of the fact that he no longer had any guard, that they might be killed by some of the men who were always with him; and thus they ran the risk of being discovered and put to death.

§ 44.15.3 Indeed, they would have suffered this fate had they not been forced even against their will to hasten the plot. For a report, whether true or false, got abroad, as reports will spread, that the priests known as the Quindecemviri were spreading the report that the Sibyl had said the Parthians would never be defeated in any other way than by a king, 4 and were consequently going to propose that this title be granted to Caesar. The conspirators believed this to be true, and because a vote would be demanded of the magistrates, among whom were Brutus and Cassius, owing to the importance of the measure, and they neither dared to oppose it nor would submit to remain silent, they hastened forward their plot before any business connected with the measure should come up.

§ 44.16 It had been decided by them to make the attempt in the senate, for they thought that there Caesar would least expect to be harmed in any way and would thus fall an easier victim, while they would find a safe opportunity by having swords instead of documents brought into the chamber in boxes, and the rest, being unarmed, would not be able to offer any resistance. 2 But in case any one should be so rash, they hoped at least that the gladiators, many of whom they had previously stationed in Pompey’s Theatre under the pretext that they were to contend there, would come to their aid; for these were to lie in wait somewhere there in a certain room of the peristyle. So the conspirators, when the appointed day was come, gathered in the senate-house at dawn and called for Caesar.

§ 44.17.1 As for him, he was warned of the plot in advance by soothsayers, and was warned also by dreams. For the night before he was slain his wife dreamed that their house had fallen in ruins and that her husband had been wounded by some men and had taken refuge in her bosom; and Caesar dreamed he was raised aloft upon the clouds and grasped the hand of Jupiter. 2 Moreover, omens not a few and not without significance came to him: the arms of Mars, at that time deposited in his house, according to ancient custom, by virtue of his position as high priest, made a great noise at night, and the doors of the chamber where he slept opened of their own accord.

§ 44.17.3 Moreover, the sacrifices which he offered because of these occurrences were not at all favourable, and the birds he used in divination forbade him to leave the house. Indeed, to some the incident of his golden chair seemed ominous, at least after his murder; for the attendant, when Caesar delayed his coming, had carried it out of the senate, thinking that there now would be no need of it.

§ 44.18.1 Caesar, accordingly, was so long in coming that the conspirators feared there might be a postponement, — indeed, a rumour got abroad that he would remain at home that day, — and that their plot would thus fall through and they themselves would be detected. Therefore they sent Decimus Brutus, as one supposed to be his devoted friend, to secure his attendance. 2 This man made light of Caesar's scruples and by stating that the senate desired exceedingly to see him, persuaded him to proceed. At this an image of him, which he had set up in the vestibule, fell of its own accord and was shattered in pieces.

§ 44.18.3 But, since it was fated that he should die at that time, he not only paid no attention to this but would not even listen to some one who was offering him information of the plot. He received from him a little roll in which all the preparations made for the attack were accurately recorded, but did not read it, thinking it contained some indifferent matter of no pressing importance. 4 In brief, he was so confident that to the soothsayer who had once warned him to beware of that day he jestingly remarked: “Where are your prophecies now? Do you not see that the day which you feared is come and that I am alive?” And the other, they say, answered merely: “Ay, it is come but is not yet past.”

§ 44.19.1 Now when he finally reached the senate, Trebonius kept Antony employed somewhere at a distance outside. 2 For, though they had planned to kill both him and Lepidus, they feared they might be maligned as a result of the number they destroyed, on the ground that they had slain Caesar to gain supreme power and not to set free the city, as they pretended; and therefore they did not wish Antony even to be present at the slaying. As for Lepidus, he had set out on a campaign and was in the suburbs.

§ 44.19.3 When Trebonius, then, talked with Antony, the rest in a body surrounded Caesar, who was as easy of access and as affable as any one could be; and some conversed with him, while others made as if to present petitions to him, so that suspicion might be as far from his mind as possible. 4 And when the right moment came, one of them approached him, as if to express his thanks for some favour or other, and pulled his toga from his shoulder, thus giving the signal that had been agreed upon by the conspirators. Thereupon they attacked him from many sides at once and wounded him to death,

§ 44.19.5 so that by reason of their numbers Caesar was unable to say or do anything, but veiling his face, was slain with many wounds. This is the truest account, though some have added that to Brutus, when he struck him a powerful blow, he said: “Thou, too, my son?”

§ 44.20.1 A great outcry naturally arose from all the rest who were inside and also from those who were standing near by outside, both at the suddenness of the calamity and because they did not know who the assassins were, their numbers, or their purpose; and all were excited, believing themselves in danger. 2 So they not only turned to flight themselves, every man as best he could, but they also alarmed those who met them by saying nothing intelligible, but merely shouting out the words: “Run! bolt doors! bolt doors!”

§ 44.20.3 Then all the rest, severally taking up the cry one from another, kept shouting these words, filled the city with lamentations, and burst into the workshops and houses to hide themselves, even though the assassins hurried just as they were to the Forum, urging them both by their gestures and their shouts not to be afraid. 4 Indeed, while they were telling them this, they kept calling for Cicero; but the crowd did not believe in any case that they were sincere, and was not easily calmed. At length, however, and with difficulty, they took courage and became quiet, as no one was killed or arrested.

§ 44.21.1 And when they met in the assembly, the assassins had much to say against Caesar and much in favour of democracy, and they bade the people take courage and not expect any harm. For they had killed him, they declared, not to secure power or any other advantage, but in order that they might be free and independent and be governed rightly. 2 By speaking such words they calmed the majority, especially since they injured no one. But fearing, for all that, that somebody might plot against them in turn, they themselves went up to the Capitol, in order, as they claimed, to pray to the gods, and there they spent the day and night.

§ 44.21.3 And at evening they were joined by some of the other prominent men, who had not, indeed, shared in the plot, but were minded, when they saw the perpetrators praised, to lay claim to the glory of it, as well as to the prizes which they expected. 4 But for them the event proved most justly the very opposite of their expectations; for they did not secure any reputation for the deed, because they had not had a hand in it in any way, but they did share the danger which came to those who committed it just as much as if they themselves had been in the plot.

§ 44.22.1 Seeing this, Dolabella likewise thought it incumbent on him not to keep quiet, but entered upon the office of consul, even though it did not yet belong to him, and after making a short speech to the people on the situation ascended to the Capitol. 2 While affairs were in this state Lepidus, learning what had taken place, occupied the Forum by night with his soldiers and at dawn delivered a speech against the assassins. As to Antony, although he had fled immediately after Caesar's death, casting away his robe of office in order to escape notice and concealing himself through the night,

§ 44.22.3 yet when he ascertained that the assassins were on the Capitol and Lepidus in the Forum, he assembled the senate in the precinct of Tellus and brought forward the business of the hour for deliberation. When some had said one thing and some another, according to what was in their thoughts, Cicero, whose advice they actually followed, spoke to this effect:

§ 44.23.1 “No one ought ever, I think, to say anything either out of favour or out of spite, but every one ought to declare what he believes to be the best. 2 We demand that those serving as praetors or consuls shall do everything from upright motives, and if they make any errors, we demand an accounting from them even for their misfortune; how absurd, then, if in discussion, where we are complete masters of our own opinion, we shall sacrifice the general welfare to our private interests!

§ 44.23.3 For this reason, Conscript Fathers, I have always thought that we ought to advise you with sincerity and justice on all matters, but especially in the present circumstances, when, if without being over-inquisitive we come to an agreement, we shall both be preserved ourselves and enable all the rest to survive, whereas, if we wish to inquire into everything minutely, I fear that ill — but at very opening of my remarks I do not wish to say anything that might offend.

§ 44.24.1 Formerly, not very long ago, those who had the arms usually also got control of the government and consequently issued orders to you as to the subjects on which you were to deliberate, instead of your determining what it was their business to do. 2 But now practically everything is at such an opportune point that matters are in your hands and depend upon you; and from yourselves you may obtain either harmony and with it liberty, or seditions and civil wars once more and a master at the close of them.

§ 44.24.3 For whatever you decide on to-day, all the rest of the citizens will follow. This being the state of the case, as I am convinced, I declare that we ought to give up our mutual enmities, or jealousies, or whatever name should be applied to them, and return to that old-time state of peace and friendship and harmony. 4 For you should remember this, if nothing else, that so long as we have conducted our government in that way we acquire lands, riches, glory, and allies, but ever since we were led into injuring one another, so far from becoming better off, we have become decidedly worse off.

§ 44.24.5 Now I am so firmly convinced that nothing else at present can save the city that if we do not to-day, at once, with all possible speed, adopt some policy, I believe we shall never be able to regain our position at all.

§ 44.25.1 ”That you may see, now, that I am speaking the truth, look at present conditions and then consider our position in olden times. Do you not see what is taking place — that the people are again being divided and torn asunder and that, with some choosing this side and some that, they have already fallen into two parties and two camps, 2 and that the one side seized the Capitol as if they feared the Gauls or somebody, while the others with headquarters in the Forum are preparing, as if they were so many Carthaginians and not Romans, to besiege them?

§ 44.25.3 Have you not heard how, though formerly citizens often quarrelled, even to the extent of occupying the Aventine once, and the Capitol, and some of them the Sacred Mount, yet as often as they were reconciled on fair terms, or by yielding a little one to the other, they at once stopped hating one another, 4 and lived the rest of their lives in such peace and harmony that together they carried through successfully many great wars? And how, on the other hand, as often as they had recourse to murders and bloodshed, the one side deluded by the plea of defending themselves against aggression, and the other side by an ambition to appear to be inferior to none, no good ever came of it?

§ 44.25.5 Why need I waste time by reciting to you, who know them equally well, the names of Valerius, Horatius, Saturninus, Glauca, the Gracchi? With such examples before you, examples chosen not from foreign countries but from your own, 6 do not hesitate to imitate the right course and to guard against the wrong, but in the conviction that you have already had in the events themselves a proof of the outcome of the plans you are now making, do not any longer look upon what I say as mere words, but consider that the interests of the state are already involved.

§ 44.25.7 For thus you will not be led by any vague notion to put to the hazard your hopes, doubtful at best, but will foresee with justifiable confidence the certainty of your calculations.

§ 44.26.1 “It is in your power, then, if you will receive this evidence that I mentioned from your own land and your own ancestors, to decide rightly; and that is why I did not wish to cite examples from abroad, though I might have mentioned countless such. One example, however, will offer from the best and most ancient city, from which even our fathers did not disdain to introduce certain laws; 2 for it would be disgraceful for us, who so far surpass the Athenians in might and intelligence, to deliberate less wisely than they. Now they were once at variance among themselves, as you all know, and as a result were overcome in war by the Lacedaemonians and were subjected to a tyranny of the more powerful citizens;

§ 44.26.3 and they did not obtain a respite from their ills until they made a compact and agreement to forget their past injuries, though these were many and severe, and never to bring any accusation whatever or bear any malice against any one because of them. 4 Accordingly, when they had thus come to their senses, they not only ceased being subject to tyrannies and seditions, but flourished in every way, regaining their city, laying claim to the sovereignty of the Greeks, and finally gaining the authority, as often happened, to save or destroy the Lacedaemonians themselves and also the Thebans.

§ 44.26.5 And yet, if the men who seized Phyle and returned from the Peiraeus had chosen to take vengeance on the city party for the wrongs they had suffered, while they would, to be sure, have been thought to have performed a justifiable action, yet they would have suffered, as well as caused, many evils. 6 For just as they exceeded their hopes by defeating their foes, they might perhaps in turn have been unexpectedly worsted.

§ 44.27.1 Indeed, in such matters there is no certainty with regard to victory, even as a result of one's power, but vast numbers who are confident fail and vast numbers who seek to take vengeance upon others perish at the same time themselves. 2 For the one who is overreached in any transaction is not bound to be fortunate just because he is wronged, nor is the one who has the greater power bound to be successful just because he surpasses, but both are equally subject to the perversity of human affairs and to the instability of fortune, and the turn of the scale often corresponds, not to their own hopefulness, but to the unexpected play of these other factors.

§ 44.27.3 As a result of this and of rivalry (for man is very prone when wronged or believing himself wronged to be bold beyond his power) many are frequently encouraged to incur dangers even beyond their strength, with the idea that they will conquer or at least will not perish unavenged. 4 So it is that, now conquering and now defeated, sometimes triumphing in turn and in turn succumbing, some perish utterly, while others gain a Cadmean victory, as the saying goes; and at a time when the knowledge can avail them nothing they perceive that they planned unwisely.

§ 44.28.1 ”That this is true you also have learned by experience. Consider a moment: Marius for a time was strong amid civil strife; then he was driven out, collected a force, and accomplished — you know what. Likewise Sulla, — not to speak of Cinna or Strabo or the rest who came between, — powerful at first, later defeated, finally making himself master, was guilty of every possible cruelty. And why name the second Marius, or even that same Cinna, or Carbo? 2 After that Lepidus, ostensibly with the purpose of punishing these men, got together a faction of his own and stirred up almost all Italy. When we at last got rid of him, too, remember what we suffered from Sertorius and from his fellow-exiles.

§ 44.28.3 When did Pompey, what did this Caesar himself do, to make no mention here of Catiline or Clodius? Did they not afterwards fight against each other, and that in spite of their relationship, and then fill with countless evils to our own city or even the rest of Italy, but practically the entire world? 4 Well then, after Pompey's death and that great slaughter of the citizens, did any quiet appear? By no means. How could it? Africa knows, Spain knows, the multitudes who perished in each of those lands.