LIX
Cæsar’s will was then opened, by which he had adopted Cnæus Octavius, grandson of his sister Julia, of whose origin, though he himself has anticipated me54, * * * I must yet say a few words. Caius Octavius, his father, was of a family which, though not patrician, was of a highly honourable equestrian rank. He possessed a sound understanding and a virtuous disposition; his conduct was distinguished by probity, and his wealth was great. In standing for the prætorship, he was chosen first among competitors of the highest character; and this honourable distinction gained him Atia, daughter of Julia, in marriage. On the expiration of his prætorship, the lots gave him the province of Macedonia, where he was honoured with the title of Imperator. On his way home to stand for the consulship, he died, leaving a son, who was under the age of manhood. This youth, who was brought up in the house of his stepfather Philippus, Caius Cæsar loved as if he were his own son; and at the age of eighteen, as he had followed him to Spain, he made him his constant companion in the Spanish war; not suffering him to use any other quarters, or to travel in any other carriage than his own; and, even while he was yet a boy, honoured him with the office of pontiff. When the civil wars were ended, in order to improve the young man’s excellent capacity by a liberal education, he sent him to Apollonia to study, proposing afterwards to take him to the wars which he meditated against the Getæ and Parthians. When the news of the murder of his uncle reached him, he received from the centurions of the legions of that neighbourhood an offer of their support, and that of the troops; which Salvidienus and Agrippa advised him not to reject. Hastening to Rome, he found at Brundisium full accounts of the fall of Cæsar, and of his will. On his approach to the city, he was met by immense crowds of his friends; and when he was entering the gate, the orb of the sun over his head was seen regularly curved55 into a circular arm, and coloured like a rainbow, as if setting a crown on the head of a man who was soon to become so great.
LX
His mother Atia and his step-father Philip were of opinion that he should not assume the name of Cæsar, as being likely to excite jealous feelings towards him; but the propitious fates of the state, and of the world, claimed him, under that name, as the founder and preserver of the Roman nation. His celestial mind accordingly spurned human counsels, determined to pursue the loftiest designs with anger rather than a humble course with safety, and choosing to follow the direction of an uncle, and that uncle Cæsar, in preference to that of his step-father; observing that it would be impious to think himself unworthy of a name of which Cæsar had thought him worthy.
The consul Antony at first met him with haughtiness, not indeed from contempt, but from fear; and after granting him an interview in Pompey’s gardens, scarcely allowed him time to speak with him. Soon after, he spread malicious insinuations that Octavius was plotting against him; the falsehood of which was detected to his disgrace.
The madness of the consuls Antony and Dolabella soon burst forth into open acts of abominable tyranny. The sum of seven hundred thousand sestertia56, deposited by Caius Cæsar in the temple of Ops, was seized by Antony, under color of false insertions which he made in Cæsar’s registers57. Everything had its price, the consul setting the Commonwealth to sale. He even resolved to seize on the province of Gaul, which had been decreed to Decimus Brutus, consul elect; while Dolabella allotted the provinces beyond sea to himself. Between parties so discordant in their natures, and so opposite in their views, mutual hatred continually increased; and Caius Cæsar, in consequence, was exposed to daily machinations on the part of Antony.
LXI
The state, oppressed by the tyranny of Antony, lost all vigour; every man felt indignation and grief, but none had the courage to make resistance; when Caius Cæsar, in the beginning of his nineteenth year, by his wonderful exertions, and accomplishment of the most important measures, displayed, while acting in a private character, a greater spirit than the senate in support of the republic. He called out his father’s veterans, first from Calatia, and then from Casilinum; and their example was followed by others, who came together in such numbers as quickly formed a regular army; and when Antony met the troops, which he had ordered to come from the foreign provinces to Brundisium, a portion of them, consisting of the Martian and the fourth legions, having learned the wish of the senate, and the abilities of Cæsar, took up their standards, and went off to join him. After honouring him with an equestrian statue, which at this day stands on the Rostrum, and testifies his age by its inscription, a compliment which, during three hundred years, was paid to none but Lucius Sylla, Cnæus Pompey, and Caius Cæsar, the senate commissioned him, in the character of proprætor, and in conjunction with the consuls elect, Hirtius and Pansa, to make war on Antony. This charge, he in his twentieth year executed with the greatest bravery in the neighbourhood of Mutina. Decimus Brutus was relieved from a siege; and Antony was forced to quit Italy in disgraceful and solitary flight. One of the consuls, however, fell in the field, and the other died of a wound a few days after.
LXII
Before Antony was obliged to flee, the highest honours were decreed by the senate, chiefly at the suggestion of Cicero, to Cæsar and his army; but, as soon as their fears were removed, their real feeling discovered itself, and their favour to Pompey’s party was renewed. To Brutus and Cassius were decreed those provinces, which they themselves, without any authority from the senate, had already seized; those who furnished them with troops were commended, and all the foreign settlements were committed to their direction. For Marcus Brutus and Caius Cassius, at one time fearing the arms of Antony, at another time counterfeiting fear in order to increase the odium against him, had published declarations, that they would willingly live even all their lives in exile, if harmony could by that means be established in the republic; that they would never afford occasion for a civil war, but were satisfied with the honour which they enjoyed in the consciousness of what they had done; and, leaving Rome and Italy, with settled and similar intentions, they had, without any public commission, possessed themselves of the provinces and armies; and pretending that wherever they were, there was the Commonwealth, had received from such as were willing to gratify them, the sums of money which used to be transmitted to Rome from the foreign provinces by the quæstors. All these proceedings were recited and approved in decrees of the senate. To Decimus Brutus, because he had escaped with life by the kindness of another, a triumph was even voted. The bodies of Hirtius and Pansa were honoured with a funeral at the public expense. So little regard was paid to Cæsar, that the deputies who were sent to the army, were directed to address themselves to the soldiers in his absence. But the army was not so ungrateful as the senate; for, though Cæsar bore the affront, pretending not to notice it, the soldiers refused to listen to any directions unless their general were present. It was at this time that Cicero, out of his rooted love of Pompey’s party, gave his opinion, that Cæsar was “laudandus et tollendus58;” saying one thing while he wished that another should be understood.
LXIII
Meanwhile Antony, having fled across the Alps, and meeting a repulse in a conference with Lepidus, (who had been clandestinely made pontifex maximus in the room of Caius Cæsar, and though appointed to the government of Spain, still delayed in Gaul,) came afterwards frequently before the eyes of the soldiers, by whom, as any commander was preferable to Lepidus, and Antony, when sober, was superior to many, he was admitted at the rear of the camp through a breach which they made in the rampart; but while he took the entire direction of affairs, he still yielded to Lepidus the title of commander. About the time that he entered the camp, Juventius Laterensis, a man whose life was consistent with his death, having earnestly dissuaded Lepidus from joining Antony, who had been proclaimed a rebel, and finding his counsel disregarded, ran himself through with his sword. Plancus, with his usual duplicity, after long debating in his mind which party he should follow, and with much difficulty forming a resolution, supported for some time Decimus Brutus, (who was consul elect, and
his own colleague,) boasting of acting thus in letters to the senate; but soon after betrayed him. Asinius Pollio was steadfast in his purpose, faithful to the Julian party, and adverse to that of Pompey. Both these officers made over their troops to Antony.
LXIV
Decimus Brutus, being first deserted by Plancus, and then endangered by his plots, and seeing his troops, too, gradually forsaking him, betook himself to flight, and was slain by some of Antony’s emissaries, in the house of a friend, a nobleman named Camelus, thus suffering just punishment for his conduct to Caius Cæsar, to whom he was under the greatest obligations. For, though he had been the most intimate of all his friends, he became his murderer, and threw on his benefactor the odium of that fortune of which he had reaped the benefit. He thought it just that he should retain the favours which he had received from Cæsar, and that Cæsar, who had given them, should perish. It was during these times that Marcus Tullius, in a series of orations, branded the memory of Antony with eternal infamy. He, indeed, assailed Antony in splendid and noble language, but Canutius, a tribune, attacked him with constant abuse. Their defence of liberty cost both of them their lives; the proscription commenced with the blood of the tribune, and ended with that of Cicero, as if even Antony were satiated with the death of such a man. Lepidus was then declared an enemy by the senate, as had previously been the case with Antony.
LXV
A correspondence by letter was then commenced between Lepidus, Cæsar, and Antony. Hints were thrown out of an accommodation, while Antony frequently reminded Cæsar how hostile to him Pompey’s party was, to what a height of power it had already arisen, and with what zeal, on the part of Cicero, Brutus and Cassius were extolled; declaring that if Cæsar disdained to come to terms with him, he would join his power to that of Brutus and Cassius, who were already at the head of seventeen legions; at the same time remarking, that Cæsar was under stronger obligations to revenge a father59 than he to revenge a friend. Hence a league of partnership in power was concluded; and in compliance with the exhortations and entreaties of the armies, an affinity was contracted between Cæsar and Antony, the step-daughter of Antony being betrothed to Cæsar. Cæsar entered on the consulship with Quintus Pedius, on the day before he completed his twentieth year, the twenty-second of September, seven hundred and eleven years after the building of the city, and seventy-two before the beginning of your consulate, Marcus Vinicius. This year saw Ventidius assume the consular robe, immediately after wearing the prætorian, in that city through which he had been led in triumph among other Picenian prisoners. He had afterwards also a triumph.
LXVI
While Antony and Lepidus were greatly enraged, both of them having, as we have said, been declared public enemies, and while both were better pleased at hearing what they had suffered, than what they had gained, the practice of proscription, on the model given by Sylla, was, in spite of Cæsar’s opposition, which was vain against the two, revived. Nothing reflects more disgrace on that period, than that either Cæsar should have been forced to proscribe any person, or that Cicero should have been proscribed by him, and that the advocate of the public should have been cut off by the villany of Antony, no one defending him, who for so many years had defended as well the cause of the public as the causes of individuals. But you have gained nothing, Mark Antony, (for the indignation bursting from my mind and heart, compels me to say what is at variance with the character of this work,) you have gained nothing, I say, by paying the hire for closing those divine lips, and cutting off that noble head, and by procuring, for a fatal reward, the death of a man, once so great as a consul, and the preserver of the Commonwealth. You deprived Marcus Cicero of a life full of trouble, and of a feeble old age; an existence more unhappy under your ascendancy, than death under your triumvirate; but of the fame and glory of his actions and writings you have been so far from despoiling him that you have even increased it. He lives, and will live in the memory of all succeeding ages. And as long as this body of the universe, whether framed by chance, or by wisdom, or by whatever means, which he, almost alone of the Romans, penetrated with his genius, comprehended in his imagination, and illustrated by his eloquence, shall continue to exist, it will carry the praise of Cicero as its companion in duration. All posterity will admire his writings against you, and execrate your conduct towards him; and sooner shall the race of man fail in the world, than his name decay.
LXVII
The calamity of this whole period no one can sufficiently deplore; much less can any one find language to express it. One thing demands observation, that there prevailed towards the proscribed the utmost fidelity in their wives, a moderate share of it in their freedmen, some portion in their slaves, and in their sons none at all; so intolerable to men is the delay of hope, on whatever grounds it be conceived. That nothing, however, should be left inviolate, Antony, as if for an attraction and excitement to atrocities, proscribed his uncle Lucius Cæsar, and Lepidus his brother Paulus. Plancus, too, had interest enough to procure a like sentence upon his brother Plotius Plancus. Among the jests of the soldiers, accordingly, who, amidst the curses of their coutrymen, followed the chariots of Lepidus and Plancus, they made use of this expression, “The consuls triumph over Germans,” (that is, brothers60 “not over Gauls.”
LXVIII
Let us here mention an affair which was omitted in its proper place; for the character of the agent does not allow a screen to be cast over his act. While Cæsar was deciding by arms the fate of the empire at Pharsalia, Marcus Cælius, a man nearly resembling Curio in eloquence and ability, but his superior in both, and not less ingeniously vicious, proposed in his prætorship, as he could not be saved by quiet and moderate means, (for his property was in a more desperate state than even in his mind,) a law for the relief of debtors; nor could he be deterred from his purpose by the influence of the senate or the consul, but called to his aid Annius Milo, (who was incensed against the Julian party, because he had not obtained a repeal of his banishment,) and endeavoured to raise a sedition in the city, and secretly to stir up war in the country; however, by the authority of the senate, he was first banished, and soon after cut off by the arms of the consuls near Thurii. Similar fortune attended Milo in a similar attempt; for while he was besieging Compsa, a town of the Hirpini, he was killed by the stroke of a stone, and paid the penalty of his offences against Publius Clodius, and against his country, on which he was making war. He was a restless character, and carried his bravery even to rashness. But since I am reverting to things omitted, let me observe, that Marullus Epidius and Flavius Cæsetius, tribunes of the people, having used intemperate and unseasonable liberties in prejudice of Caius Cæsar, and having charged him with aspiring to royalty, were very near feeling the force of absolute power. Yet the anger of the prince, though often provoked, went no further than this, that, satisfied with a sentence of disgrace from the censors, instead of the punishment which a dictator might inflict, he banished them from the country, declaring that it was a great unhappiness to him, to be obliged either to depart from his nature, or suffer his dignity to be violated. But I must return to the course of my narrative.
LXIX
In Asia, Dolabella, having by a stratagem deluded Caius Trebonius, who had been consul, and with whom he was at enmity, had slain him at Smyrna. Trebonius was a man most ungrateful for the kindnesses of Cæsar, and a participator in the murder of him by whom he had been raised to the dignity of consul. In Syria, Caius Cassius, having received some legions from Statius Murcus and Crispus Marcius, who had been prætors, and were at the head of a very powerful force, shut up Dolabella in Laodicea, (for he, finding Asia pre-occupied, had proceeded into Syria,) and, having taken the town, put him to death, (Dolabella, with spirit enough, holding out his neck to the stroke of his slave,) and thus acquired the command of ten legions in that country. In Macedonia, Marcus Brutus had drawn over to his side the legions of Caius, the brother of Mark Antony, and those of Vatinius, near Dyrrachium, who willingly joined him. Antonius he ha
d attacked in the field; Vatinius he had overawed by the dignity of his character; as Brutus was reckoned preferable to any leader of the times, and Vatinius was considered inferior to every one; a man in whom deformity of person vied with depravity of mind, so that his soul seemed lodged in an habitation perfectly adapted to it. He was seven legions strong.
By the Pedian law, which the consul Pedius, Cæsar’s colleague, had proposed, a sentence of banishment had been passed on all persons concerned in the murder of Cæsar his father. At that time, Capito, my uncle, a man of senatorial rank, seconded Agrippa in the prosecution of Caius Cassius. While these transactions were passing in Italy, Cassius by active and successful operations, had got possession of Rhodes, an enterprise of extreme difficulty. Brutus had subdued the Lycians, and both of them had then marched their armies into Macedonia, while Cassius, on every occasion, acting against his nature, exceeded even Brutus in clemency. You cannot find two men whom fortune more propitiously attended, or whom, as if tired of them, she sooner deserted, than Brutus and Cassius.
LXX
Cæsar and Antony then transported their armies into Macedonia, and near the city of Philippi came to a general engagement with Brutus and Cassius. The wing that Brutus commanded, driving the enemy from the field, took Cæsar’s camp; for Cæsar himself, though in a very weak state of health, performed the duties of a commander; notwithstanding he was urged by a plain warning in a dream, not to remain in the camp. But the wing which Cassius commanded, being routed with great loss, retreated to higher ground; when Cassius, judging of his colleague’s fortune by his own, despatched a veteran, with orders to bring him an account what body of men it was that were coming towards him; but the veteran being slow in bringing the intelligence, and the band of men, marching hastily up, being just at hand, (neither their faces nor their standards being distinguishable by reason of the dust,) Cassius, supposing them enemies ready to rush on him, covered his head with his robe, and intrepidly presented his extended neck to his freedman. The head of Cassius had fallen, when the veteran returned with intelligence, that Brutus was victorious; and, seeing the body of his general extended on the earth, he exclaimed, “I will follow him whom my tardiness has killed,” and immediately fell on his sword. In a few days after, Brutus engaged the enemy again, and, being worsted in the field, and retreating to a hill in the night, he prevailed on Strato of Ægeum, an intimate friend, to lend him his hand in effecting his death; when, raising his left arm over his head, and holding the point of his sword in his right hand, he applied it to the side of his left breast, at the very spot where the heart beats, and throwing himself on the weapon, was transfixed by the one effort, and immediately expired.
Complete Works of Velleius Paterculus Page 9