Notes
for Plutarch Parallel Lives
translated by John Dryden
originally
1996/04/960429.wpd
CORIOLANUS
(208)
There was a man of Antium, called Tullus Aufidius, who, for his
wealth and bravery and the splendor of his family, had the respect
and privilege of a king among the Volscians, but whom Marcius knew to
have a particular hostility to himself, above all other Romans.
Frequent menaces and challenges had passed in battle between them,
and those exchanges of defiance to which their hot and eager
emulation is apt to prompt young soldiers had added
private animosity to their national feelings of opposition.
Yet for all this, considering Tullus to have a certain generosity of
temper, and knowing that no Volscian, so much as he, desired an
occasion to requite upon the Romans the evils they had done, he
did what much confirms the saying, that—
“Hard
and unequal is with wrath the strife,
Which makes us buy its
pleasure with our life.”
Putting
on such a dress as would make him appear to any whom he might meet
most unlike what he really was, like
Ulysses—
“The
town he entered of his mortal foes.”
His
arrival at Antium was about evening, and, though several met him in
the streets, yet he passed along without being known to any and went
directly to the house of Tullus, and, entering undiscovered, went up
to the fire-hearth, and seated himself there without speaking a word,
covering up his head.
CAESAR
(299)
And though at the beginning, while so many were to be put to death,
and there was so much to do, Caesar was overlooked by Sylla, yet he
would not keep quiet, but presented himself to the people as a
candidate for the priesthood, though he was yet a mere boy.
(300-301)
In the meantime Sylla’s power being now on the decline, C’s
friends advised him to return to Rome, but he went to Rhodes, and
entered himself in the school of Apollonius, Molon’s son, a famous
rhetorician, one who had the reputation of a worthy man, and had
Cicero for one of his scholars.
(301) And he himself, in his
answer to Cicero’s panegyric on Cato, desires his reader not to
compare the plain discourse of a soldier with the harangues of an
orator who had not only fine parts, but
had employed his life in this study.
(301-302)
Cicero was the first who had any suspicions of his designs upon the
government, and as a good pilot is apprehensive of a storm when the
sea is most smiling, saw the designing temper of the man through this
disguise of good humor and affability, and said that, in general, in
all he did and undertook, he detected the ambition
for absolute power,
“but when I see his hair so carefully arranged, and observe him
adjusting it with one finger, I cannot imagine it should enter into
such a man’s thoughts to subvert the Roman state.”
(302) He
was so profuse in his expenses that, before he had any public
employment, he was in debt 1.3K talents, and many thought that by
incurring such expense to be popular he changed a solid good for what
would prove but a short and uncertain return; but in truth he
was purchasing what was of the greatest value at an inconsiderable
rate.
(303)
he threw into the shade all the attempts that had been made before
him, and gained so much upon the people, that every one was eager to
find out new offices and new honors for him in return for his
munificence.
Caesar: we have absolute power, the tuning-hammer, and innovations.
(303)
Some cried out that it was an open attempt against the established
government thus to revive those honors which had been buried by the
laws and decrees of the senate; that Caesar had done it to sound
the temper of
the people whom he had prepared before, and to try whether they were
tame enough to bear his humor, and would quietly give way to his
innovations.
(303-304)
Upon this the senate me, and Cataulus Lutatius, one of the most
eminent Romans of that time, stood up and inveighed against Caesar,
closing his speech with the remarkable saying that Caesar was now not
working mines, but planting batteries to overthrow the state. But
when Caesar had made an apology
for himself, and satisfied
the senate, his admirers were very much animated, and advised him not
to depart from his own thoughts for any one, since with the people’s
good favor he would ere long get the better of them all, and be the
first man in the commonwealth.
(304) all that is certain is, that
they were fully convicted in the senate, and when Cicero, the consul,
asked the several opinions of the senators, how they would have them
punished, all who spoke before Caesar sentenced them to death; but
Caesar stood up and made a set speech, in which he told them that he
thought it without precedent and not just to take away the lives of
persons of their birth and distinction before they were fairly tried,
unless there was an absolute necessity for it;
(305) As Caesar was
going out of the senate, many of the young men who at that time acted
as guards to Cicero ran in with their naked swords to assault him.
But Curio, it is said, threw his gown over him, and conveyed him
away, and Cicero
himself, when the young men looked up to see his wishes, gave a sign
not to kill him,
either for fear of the people or because he thought the murder unjust
and illegal. If this be true, I
wonder how Cicero came to omit all mention of it in his book about
his consulship.
(307)
Clodius [interrupted all-female celebration of Bona trying to get to
Pompeia], at any rate, escaped; most of the judges giving their
opinions so
written as to be illegible
that they might not be in
danger from the people by condemning him, not in disgrace with the
nobility by acquitting him.
(308) It is said that another time,
when free from business in Spain, after reading some part of the
history of Alexander, he sat a great while very thoughtful, and at
last burst out into tears. His friends were suprised, and asked him
the reason of it. “Do
you think,” said he, “I have not just cause to weep, when I
consider that Alexander at my age had conquered so many nations, and
I have all this time done nothing that is memorable.”
(308-309)
Entering the town [instead of waiting for triumph] and coming forward
immediately, he had recourse to a piece of state policy by which
everybody was deceived but Cato. This was the reconciling of Crassus
and Pompey, the two men who then were most powerful in Rome. There
had been a quarrel between them, which he now succeeded in making up,
and by this means strengthened himself by the united power of both,
and so under the cover of an action which carried all the appearance
of a piece of kindness and good-nature, caused
what was in effect a revolution in the government.
For it was not the quarrel between Pompey and Caesar, as most men
imagine, which was the origin of the civil wars, but their union,
their conspiring together at first to subvert the aristocracy, and so
quarrelling afterwards between themselves. Cato, who often foretold
what the consequence of this alliance would be, had then the
character of a sullen, interfereing man, but in the end the
reputation of a wise but unsuccessful counsellor.
(309) When he
entered on his office he brought in bills which would have been
preferred with better grace by the most
audacious of
the tribunes than by a consul, in which he proposed the plantation
of colonies and the division of lands,
simply to please the commonalty.
(310) and got Piso made consul
for the year following.
(311) For if we compare him with the
Fabii, the Metelli, the Scipios, and with those who were his
contemporaries, or not long before him, Sylla, Marius, the Luculli,
or even Pompey himself, whose glory, it may be said, went up at that
time to heaven for every excellence in war, we shall find C’s
actions to have surpassed
them all.
(311) For he
had not pursued the wars in Gaul full the years when he had taken by
storm above eight hundred towns, subdued three hundred states, and of
the three millions of men, who made up the gross sum of those with
whom at several times he engaged, he had killed one million and taken
captive a second.
(312-131) This love of honor and passion for
distinction were inspired into them and cherished in them by Caesar
himself, who, by his unsparing distribution of money and honors,
showed them that he did not heap up wealth from the wars for his own
luxury, or the gratifying his private pleasures, but that all
he received was but a public fund laid by the reward and
encouragement of valor,
and that he looked upon all he gave to deserving soldiers as so much
to his own riches. Added to this also, there was no danger to which
he did not willingly expose himself, no labor from which he pleaded
exemption. His contempt of danger was not so much wondered at by his
soldiers because they knew how much he coveted honor. But his
enduring so much
hardship, which
he did to all appearance beyond his natural strength, very much
astonished them. For he was a spare man, had a soft and white skin,
was distempered in the head and subject to an epilepsy,
which, it is said, first seized him at Corduba. But he did not make
the weakness of his constitution a pretext for his ease, but rather
used war as the best physic
against his indispositions;
whilst, by indefatigable journeys, coarse diet, frequent lodging in
the field, and continual laborious exercise, he struggled with his
diseases and fortified his body against all attacks. He slept
generally in his chariots or litters, employing even his rest in
pursuit of action. In the day he was thus carried to the forts,
garrisons, and camps, one servant sitting with him, who used to write
down what he dictated as
he went, and a soldier attending behind him with his sword drawn.
Caesar: important notes about ancient note taking practices, dictating letters on horseback, giving directions to multiple note takers, using ciphers.
(313)
And in this war he disciplined himself so far as to be able
to dictate letters from on horseback,
and to give
directions to two who took notes at the same time
or, as Oppius says, to
more. And it is thought that he was the first who contrived means for
communicating with friends by cipher,
when either press of business, or the large extent of the city, left
him no time for a personal conference about matters that required
dispatch.
(315) They [Germans] were still more discouraged by the
prophecies of their holy women, who foretell the future by observing
the eddies of rivers, and taking signs from the windings and noise of
streams, and who now warned them not to engage before the next new
moon appeared. Caesar having had intimation of this, and seeing the
Germans lie still, thought it expedient to attack them whilst they
were under these apprehensions, rather than sit still and wait their
time.
(315) There he sat down [at Sequani, near the Rubicon] and
employed himself in courting people’s favor; great numbers coming
to him continually, and always finding their requests answered; for
he never failed to dismiss all with present pledges of his kindness
in hand, and further hopes for the future.
(316) When the Roman
sentate had received news of this, they voted sacrifices and
festivals to the gods, to be strictly observed for the space of
fifteen days,
a longer space than ever was observed for any victory before. [and
Cicero proposed 50 days for Brutus] The danger to which they had been
exposed by the joint outbreak of such a number of nations was felt to
have been great; and the peoples’ fondness for Caesar gave
additional luster to successes achieved by him. He now, after
settling everything in Gaul, came back again, and spent the winter by
the Po, in order to carry on the designs he had in hand at Rome. All
who were candidates for offices used his assistance, and were
supplied with money from him to corrupt the people and buy their
votes, in return of which, when they were chosen, they did all things
to advance his power.
(317) It seemed very extravagant to all
thinking men
that those very persons who
had received so much money from Caesar should persuade the senate to
grant him more, as if he were in want.
(318) But his expedition
into Britain was the most famous testimony of his courage. For he was
the first who brought a navy into the western ocean, or who sailed
into the Atlantic with an army to make war; and by invading an
island, the reported extent of which had made its existence a matter
of controversy among historians,
many of whom questioned whether it were not a mere name and fiction,
not a real place, he might be said to have carried the Roman empire
beyond the limits of the known world.
(319) This quieted the
greater part of the commotions in these parts of Gaul, and Caesar, in
the course of the winter, visited every part of the country, and with
great vigilance took precautions against all innovations.
(321)
nor were there in the town less than 170K.
(321) The danger that
he underwent before Alesia justly gained him great honor on many
accounts, and gave him an opportunity of showing greater instances of
his valor and conduct than any other contest had done.
(322)
Caesar had long ago resolved upon the overthrow of Pompey, as had
Pompey, for that matter, upon his. For Crassus, the fear of whom had
hitherto kept them in peace, having now been killed in Parthia, if
the one of them wished to make himself the greatest man in Rome, he
had only to overthrow the other; and if he again wished to prevent
his own fall, he had nothing for it but to be beforehand with him
whom he feared.
(322) Nor did he let go any of those advantages
which were now given him both by Pompey himself and the times, and
the ill-government of Rome, where all who were candidates for offices
publicly gave money, and without any shame bribed the people, who,
having received their pay, did not contend for their benefactors with
their bare suffrages, but with bows, swords, and slings. So that
after having many times stained the place of election with blood of
men killed upon the spot, they left the city at last without a
government at all, to be carried about like a ship without a pilot to
steer her; while all who had any wisdom could only be thankful if a
course of such wild and stormy disorder and madness might end no
worse than in a monarchy.
(324) Yet the demands which Caesar made
had the fairest colors of equity imaginable. For he proposed to lay
down his arms, and that Pompey should do the same, and both together
should become private men, and each expect a reward of his services
from the public. For that those who proposed to disarm him, and at
the same time confrim Pompey in all the power he held, were simply
establishing the one in the tyranny which they accused the other of
aiming at.
Caesar: translation includes many references to thinking, computing, calculation in reaching decision to cross Rubicon; long notes about incestuous dream and then Demosthenes oratory style moved to journal.
(325-326)
When he came to the river Rubicon, which parts Gaul within the Alps
from the rest of Italy, his
thought began to work,
now he was just entering upon the danger, and he wavered much in his
mind when he considered the greatness of the enterprise into which he
was throwing himself. He checked his course and ordered a halt, while
he revolved with himself, and often changed his opinion one way and
the other, without speaking a word. This was when his purposes
fluctuated most; presently he also discussed the matter with his
friends who were about him (of which number Asinius Pollio was one),
computing how
many calamities his passing that river would bring upon mankind, and
what a relation of it would be transmitted to posterity.
At last, in a
sort of passion, casting aside calculation,
and abandoning himself to what might come, and using
the proveb frequently
in their mouths who enter upon dnagerous and bold attempts, “The
die is cast,” with these words he took the river. Once over, he
used all expedition possible, and before it was day reached Ariminum
and took it. It
is said that the night before he passed the river he had an impious
dream, that he was unnaturally familiar with his own
mother.
(326-327)
Yet still Pompey at that time had more forces than Caesar; but he was
not permitted to pursue his own thoughts,
but, being disturbed with false reports and alarms, as if the enemy
was close hupon him and carrying all before him, he gave way and let
himself be borne down by the general cry. He put forth an edict
declaring the city to be in a state of anarchy, and left it with
orders that the senate should follow him, and that no one should stay
behind who did not prefer tyranny to their country and liberty.
(328)
Soon after, upon C’s approach, he set to sea, as shall be more
particularly related in his Life.
(329) After this, being
created dictator by the senate,
he called home the exiles, and gave back their rights as citizens to
the children of those who had suffered under Sylla; he relieved the
debtors by an act remitting some part of the interest on their debts,
and passed some other measures of the same sort, but not many. For
within eleven days he resigned his dictatorship, and having declared
himself consul, with Servilius Isauricus, hastened again to the
war.
(332) Pompey was driven, against his own will, by this kind
of language, into offering battle, and proceeded to follow
Caesar.
(333) But after he took Gomphi, a town of Thessaly, he not
only found provisions for his army, but physic
too. For there they met
with plenty of wine, which they took very freely, and heated with
this, sporting and revelling on their march in bacchanalian fashion,
they shook off the disease, and their whole constitution was relieved
and changed into another habit.
Caesar spoke in Latin and wrote in Greek.
(336)
Caesar, when he came to view Pompey’s camp, and saw some of his
opponents dead upon the ground, others dying, said, with a groan,
“This they would have; they brought me to this necessity. I, Caius
Caesar, after succeeding in so many wars, had been condemned had I
dismissed my army.” These words, Pollio says, Caesar
spoke in Latin at that time,
and that he himself wrote them in Greek; adding, that those who were
killed at the taking of the camp were most of them servants; and that
not above six thousand soldiers fell.
(336) When he [Caius
Cornelius an acquaintance of Livy] looked a second time, and observed
the omens, he leaped up as if he had been inspired, and cried out,
“Caesar, you are victorius.” This much surprised the standers-by,
but he took the garland which he had on from his head, and swore he
would never wear it again till the event should give authority to his
art.
This Livy positively states for a truth.
(337) In his letter to
his friends at Rome, he told them that the greatest and most signal
pleasure his victory had given him was to
be able continually to save the lives of fellow-citizens who had
fought against him.
(338)
This was the time when, according to the story, he had a number of
manuscripts in his hand, which, though he was continually darted at,
and forced to keep his head often under water, yet he did not let go,
but held them up safe from wetting in one hand, whilst he swam with
the other.
(339) When he have Amantius, a friend of his at Rome,
an account of this action, to express the promptness and rapidity of
it he used three words, I
came, saw, and conquered,
which in Latin, having all the same cadence, carry with them a very
suitable air of brevity.
(339) Hence he crossed into Italy, and
came to Rome at the end of that year, for which he had been a second
time chosen dictator, though that office had never before lasted a
whole year, and was elected consul for the next.
(339) But Caesar,
for the prosecution
of his own scheme of government,
though he knew their characters and disapproved them, was forced to
make use of those who would serve him.
(340) This is the account
some give of that fight. Others say he was not in the action, but
that he was taken with his usual distemper just as he was setting his
army in order. He perceived the approaches of it, and before it had
too far disordered his senses, when he was already beginning to shake
under its influence, withdrew into a neighboring fort were he reposed
himself.
(341) Cato had undertaken to defend Utica, and for that
reason was not in the battle. The desire which Caesar had to take him
alive made him hasten thither; and upon the intelligence that he had
despatched himself, he was much discomposed, for what reason is not
so well agreed. He certainly said, “Cato, I must grudge you your
death, as you grudged me the honor of saving your life.” Yet the
discourse he wrote against Cato after his death is no great sign of
his kindness, or that he was inclined to be reconciled to him. For
how is it probable that he would have been tender of his life when he
was so bitter against his memory? But from his clemency to Cicero,
Brutus, and many others who fought against him, it may be divined
that C’s book was not written so much out of animosity upon Cato,
as in his own vindication. Cicero had written an encomium upon Cato,
and called it by his name. A composition by so great a master upon so
excellent a subject was sure to be in every one’s hands. This
touched Caesar, who looked upon a panegyric on his enemies as not
better than an invective against himself; and therefore he made in
his Anti-Cato a collection of whatever could be said in his
derogation. The two compositions, like Cato and Caesar themselves,
have each of them their several admirers.
(341-342) When these
shows were over, an account was taken of the people who, from 320K,
were now reduced to 150K. So great a waste had the civil war made in
Rome alone, not to mention what the other parts of Italy and the
provinces suffered.
(342-343) Nevertheless his countrymen,
conceding all to his fortune, and accepting the bit, in the hope that
the government of a single person would give them time to breathe
after so many civil wars and calamities, made him dictator
for life. Thsi
was indeed a tyranny avowed, since his power now was not only
absolute, but perpetual also. Cicero made the first proposals to the
senate for conferring honors upon him, which might in some sort be
said not to exceed the limits of ordinary human moderation. But
others, striving which should deserve most, carried them so
excessively high, that they made Caesar odious to the most
indifferent and moderate sort of men, by the pretensions and
extravagance of the titles which they decreed him.
(343) When his
friends advised him to have a guard, and several offered their
services, he would not hear of it; but said it was better
to suffer death once than always to live in fear of it.
He looked upon the affections of the people to be the best and surest
guard, and entertained them again with public feasting and general
distributions of corn; and to gratify his army, he sent out colonies
to several places, of which the most remarkable were Carthage
and Corinth;
which as before they had been ruined at the same time, so now were
restored and repeopled together.
(343-344) Caesar was born to do
great things, and had a passion after honor, and the many noble
exploits he had done did not now serve as an inducement to him to sit
still and reap the fruit of his past labors, but were incentives and
encouragements to go on, and raised in him ideas of still greater
actions, and a desire of new glory, as if the present were all spent.
It
was in fact a sort of
emulous struggle
with himself, as it
had been with another, how he might outdo his past actions by his
future.
Caesar reformation of calendar prelude to calculation of Easter day, for which mobilization of philosophers and mathematicians occurred.
(344)
These things were designed without being carried into effect, but his
reformation of the
calendar in
order to rectify the irregularity of time was not only projected
with great scientific ingenuity,
but was brought to its completion, and proved of very great use. . .
. only the priests could say the time, and they, at their pleasure,
without giving any notice, slipped in the intercalary month, which
they call Mercedonius.
(345)
Caesar called in the best philosophers
and mathematicians of
his time to settle the point, and out of the systems he had before
him formed a new and more exact method of correcting the calendar,
which the Romans use to this day, and seem to succeed better than any
nation in avoiding the errors occasioned by the inequality of the
cycles. Yet even this gave offence to those who looked with an evil
eye on his position, and felt oppressed by his power. Cicero the
orator, when some one in his company chanced to say the next morning
Lyra would rise, replied, “Yes,
in accordance with the edict,”
as if even this were a
matter of compulsion.
(345-346) Another time, when the senate had
conferred on him some extravagant honors, he chanced to receive the
message as he was sitting on the rostra, where, though the consuls
and praetors themselves waited on him, attended by the whole body of
the senate, he did not rise, but behaved himself to them as if they
had been private men, and told them his honors wanted rather to be
retrenched than increased. This treatment offended not only the
senate, but the commonalty too, as if they thought the affront upon
the sentate equally reflected upon the whole republic; so that all
who could decently leave him went off, looking much discomposed.
Caesar, perceiving the false step he had made, immediately retired
home; and lying his throat bare, told his friends that he was ready
to offer this to any one who would give the stroke. But afterwards
he made the malady from which he suffered the excuse for his sitting,
saying that those who are attacked by it lose their presence of mind
if they talk much standing; that they presently grow giddy, fall into
convulsions, and quite lose their reason.
(346) Brutus was the
first who ended the succession of kings, and transferred the power
which before wa lodged in one man into the hands of the senate and
people.
(347-348) Those who desired a change, and looked on him as
the only, or at least the most proper, person to effect it, did not
venture to speak with him; but int he night-time laid papers about
his chair of state, where he used to sit and determine causes, with
such sentences in them as, “You are asleep, Brutus,” “You are
no longer Brutus.” Cassius, when he percieved his ambition a little
raised upon this, was more instant than before to work him yet
further, having himself a private grudge against Caesar for some
reasons that we have mentioned in the Life of Brutus. Nor was Caesar
without suspicions of him, and said once to his friends, “What do
you think Cassius is aming at? I don’t like him, he looks so pale.”
And when it was told him that Antony and Dolabella were in a plot
against him, he said he
did not fear such fat, luxurious men, but rather the pale, lean
fellows, meaning Cassius and Brutus.
Fate,
however, is to all appearance more unaviodable than unexpected. For
many strange prodigies and apparitions are said to have been observed
shortly before his event. As to the lights in the heavens, the noises
heard in the night, and the wild birds which perched in the forum,
these are not perhaps worth taking notice of in so great a case as
this. Strabo,
the philosopher, tells us that a number of men were seen, looking as
if they were heated through with fire, contending with each other;
that a quanitity of flame issued from the hand of a soldier’s
servant, so that they who saw it thought he must be burnt, but that
after all he had no hurt As Caesar was sacrificing, the victim’s
heart was missing, a very bad omen, because no living creature can
subsist without a heart.
(349-350) Artemidorus, a Cnidian, a
teacher of Greek logic, and by that means so far acquainted with
Brutus and his friends as to have got into the secret, brought Caesar
in a small written memorial the heads of what he had to depose. He
had observed that Caesar,
as he received any papers, presently gave them to the servants who
attended on him;
and therefore came as near to him as he could, and said, “Read
this, Caesar, alone, and quickly, for it contains a matter of great
importance which nearly concerns you.” Caesar received it, and
tried several times to read it, but was still hindered by the crowd
of those who came to speak to him. However, he kept it in his hand by
itself till he came into the senate. Some say it was another who gave
Caesar this note, and that Artemidorus could not get to him, being
all along kept off by the crowd.
All these things might happen by
chance. But the place which was destined for the scene of this
murder, in which the senate met that day, was the same in which
Pompey’s statue stood, and was one of the edifices in which Pompey
had raised and dedicated with his theatre to the use fo the public,
plainly showing that there was something
of a supernatural influence
which guided the action and
ordered it to that particular place. Cassius, just before the act, is
said to have looked towards Pompey’s statue, and silently implored
his assistance, though he had been inclined to the doctrines of
Epicurus.
(350)
As for Antony, who was firm to Caesar, and a strong man, Brutus
Albinus kept him outside the house, and delayed him with a long
conversation contrived on purpose.
(350-351)
Casca gave him the first cut in the neck, which was not mortal nor
dangerous, as coming from one who at the beginning of such a bold
action was probably very much disturbed; Caesar immediately turned
about, and laid his hand upon the dagger and kept hold of it. And
both of them at
the same instant cried out,
he that received the blow, in Latin, “Vile Casca, what does this
mean?” and he that gave it, in Greek to his brother, “Brother,
help!” Upon this first onset, those who were not privy to the
design were astonished, and their horror and amazement at what they
saw were so great they they durst not fly nor assist Caesar, nor so
much as speak a word. But those who came prepared for the business
enclosed him on every side, with their naked daggers in their hands.
Which way soever he turned he met with blows, and saw their swords
levelled at his face and eyes, and was encompassed like a wild beast
in the toils on every side. For it had been agreed they should each
of them make a thrust at him, and flesh themselves with his blood;
for which reason Brutus also have him one stab in the groin. Some say
he fought and resisted all the rest, shifting his body to avoid the
blows, and calling out for help, but that when he saw Brutus’s
sword drawn, he covered his face with his robe and submitted, letting
himself fall, whether it were by chance or that he was pushed in that
direction by his murderers, at the foot of the pedestal on which
Pompey’s statue stood, and which was thus wetted with his blood. So
that Pompey himself seemed to have presided, as it were, over the
revenge done upon his adversary, who lay here at his feet, and
breathed out his soul through his multitude of wounds, for they say
he received three-and-twenty. And the conspirators themselves were
many of them wounded by each other, whilst they all levelled their
blows at the same person.
When Caesar was despatched, Brutus stood
forth to give a reason for what they had done, but the senate would
not ehar him, but flew out of doors in all haste, and filled the
people with so much alarm and distraction, that some
shut up their houses, others left their counters and shops.
(351-352)
The day after, Brutus with the rest came down from the capitol and
made a speech to the people, who listened without expressing either
any pleasure or resentment, but showed
by their silence that they pitied Caesar and respected Brutus.
The senate passed acts
of oblivion for
what was past, and took measures to reconcile all parties. They
ordered that Caesar should be worshipped as a divinity, and nothing,
even of the slighest consequence, should be revoked which he had
enacted during his government. At the same time they gave Brutus and
his followers command of provinces, and other considerable posts. So
that all the people now thought things were welll settled, and
brought to the happiest adjustment.
But when C’s will was
opened, and it was found that he had left a considerable legacy to
each one of the Roman citizens, and when his body was seen carried
through the market-place all mangled with wounds, the multitude could
no longer contain themselves within the bounds of tranquility and
order, but heaped together a pile of benches, bars, and tables, which
they placed the corpse on, and setting fire to it, burnt it on them.
Then they took brands from the pile and ran some to fire the houses
of the conspirators, tohers up and down the city, to find out the men
and tear them to pieces, but met, however, with none of them, they
having taken effectual care to secure themselves.
(352-353) Caesar
died in his fifty-sixth year, not having survived Pompey above four
years. That empire and power which he had pursued through the whole
course of his life with so much hazard, he did at last with much
difficulty compass,
but reaped no other fruits from it than the empty name and invidious
glory. But the great
genius which
attended him through his lifetime even after his death remained as
the avenger of his murder, pursuing through every sea and land all
those who were concerned in it, and suffering none to escape, but
reaching all who in any sort or kind were either actually engaged in
the fact, or by their counsels any way promoted it.
(353) The most
signal preternatural appearances were the great comet, which shone
very bright for seven nights after C’s death, and then disappeared,
and the dimness of the sun, whose orb continued pale and dull for the
whole of that year, never showing its ordinary radiance at its
rising, and giving but a weak and feeble heat. (..) But above all,
the phantom
which appeared to Brutus
showed the murder was not pleasing to the gods.
(353) For he is
related to ahve been the least inclined to sleep of all men who have
commanded armies, and to have had the greatest
natural capacity for continuing awake,
and employing himself without need of rest.
DEMOSTHENES
I think that it is safe to say that most of us would have to admit to this in our own case, but what Plutarch neglects is any metaphysical interpretation, that is, from one position-desiring-grounding-logic, why a stammering, uncertain speaker might be produced at all, or one who refuses to speak without time to go down into hir cave beforehand in preparation. Thus at the outset we are forced to consider a fuzzy symbolization of this state of affairs.
(361)
To others, however, he would not much deny it, but would
admit frankly enough, that he neither wrote his speeches beforehand,
nor yet spoke wholly extempore.
And he would affirm that it was the more truly popular act to use
premeditation, such preparation being a kind of respect to the
people; whereas, to slight and take no care how what is said is
likely to be received by the audience, shows something of an
oligarchical temper, and is the course of one that intends force
rather than persuasion. [sounds more like a dictator, to plan it
out?] Of his want of courage and assurance to speak offhand, they
make it also another argument that, when he was at a loss and
discomposed, Demades would often rise up on the sudden to support
him, but he was never observed to do the same for Demades.
(361-362)
But Demosthenes, it should seem, regarded other points in the
character of Pericles to be unsuited to him; but his reserve and his
sustained manner, and his forbearing to speak on the sudden, or upon
every occasion, as being the things to which principally he owed his
greatness, these he followed, and endeavored to imitate, neither
wholly neglecting the glory which present occasion offered, not yet
willing too often to expose his faculty to the mercy of chance.
CICERO
(382)
Eager for every kind of learning, and indisposed
to no description of knowledge or instruction,
he showed, however, a more peculiar propensity to poetry; and there
is a poem now extant made by him when a boy, in tetrameter verse,
called Pontius Glaucus.
(383) But fearing Sylla, he travelled into
Greece, and gave it out that he did so for the benefit of his health.
And indeed he was lean and meager, and had such a weakness in his
stomach that he could take nothing but a spare and thin diet, and
that not till late in the evening. His voice was loud and good, but
so harsh and unmanaged that in vehemence and heat of speaking he
always raised it to so high a tone that there seemed to be reason to
fear about his health.
(383) C rather affected and adhered to the
doctrines of the New Academy; and purposed with himself, if he should
be disappointed of any employment in the commonwealth, to retire
hither from pleading and political affairs, and to pass his life with
quiet in the study of philosophy.
Cicero: perhaps declaiming meant impromptu, and it was obvious that Cicero recited a memorized speech in Greek, and this truth become the distorted semblance of inproficiency in speaking the language? No; declaiming is “to speak rhetorically as an exercise in eloquence.” Cicero could sing Greek better than anyone else, but Apollonius knew he preferred his native tongue as his primary (song-enframing, titling, question-provoking, production-initiating) language. Cicero can recite a memorized speech, or read aloud a text, or utter words and phrases. Thus transfered to Latin as ‘capital’ (hyle), the memory of Greek thinking dies.
Cicero: transfer eloquence of Greece to Rome, including Latin as philosophical language. Nnecessary this must be in Greek, not Latin, for it would have been absurd for someone not understanding Latin to have done so.
(384) He sailed from Athens for Asia and Rhodes. Amongst the Asian masters, he conversed with Xenocles of Adramyttium, Dionysius of Magnesia, and Menippus of Caria; at Rhodes, he studied oratory with Apollonius, the son of Molon, and philosophy with Posidonius. Apollonius, we are told, not understanding Latin, requested Cicero to declaim in Greek. He complied willingly, thinking that his faults would thus be better pointed out to him. And after he finished, all his other hearers were astonished, and contended who should praise him most, but Apollonius, who had shown no signs of excitement whilst he was hearing him, so also now, when it was over, sate musing for some considerable time, without much remark. And when Cicero was discomposed at this, he said, “You have my praise and admiration, Cicero, and Greece my pity and commiseration, since those arts and that eloquence which are the only glories that remain to her, will now be transferred by you to Rome.”
Cicero: got advice from the Delphic oracle to make his own genius and not public opinion the guide of his life, similar to Socrates listening to his divine sign, and not to take on the complexion of the dead.
(385)
And
now when Cicero, full of expectation, was again bent upon politcal
affairs, a certain oracle blunted the edge of his inclination; for
consulting the god of Delphi how he should attain most glory, the
Phythoness answered, by
making his own genius and not the opinion of the people the
guide of his life;
and therefore at first he passed his time in Rome cautiously, and was
very backward in pretending to public offices, so that he was at that
time in lttle esteem, and had got the names, so readily given by low
and ignorant people in Rome, of Greek
and
Scholar.
(385)
his readiness and address in sarcasm, and generally in witty sayings,
was thought to suit a pleader very well, and to be highly attractive,
but his using it to excess offended many, and gave him the repute of
ill-nature.
(385-386) Nevertheless, he was always excessively
pleased with his own praise, and continued to the very last to be
passionately fond of glory; which often interfered with the
prosecution of his wisest resolutions.
Cicero: learned civic information with the detail artificers knew their instruments and materials. Obviously one of the Ideological Constants for this iteration of the thought; applied to telephone science.
(386)
On beginning to apply himself more resolutely to public business, he
remarked it as an unreasonable and absurd thing that artificers,
using vessels and instruments inanimate, should know the name, place,
and use of every one of them, and yet the statesman, whose
instruments
for carrying out public
measures are men, should be negligent and careless in the knowledge
of persons. And so he
not only acquainted himself with the names,
but also knew the particular place where every one of the more
eminent citizens dwelt, what lands he possessed, the friends he made
use of, and those that were of his neighborhood, and when he
travelled on any road in Italy, he could readily name and show the
estates and seats of his friends and acquaintance.
Having so small an estate,
though a sufficient competency for his own expenses, it weas much
wondered at that he took neither fees nor gifts from his clients, and
more especially that he did not do so when he undertook the
prosecution of Verres.
(386) Having so small an estate, though a
sufficient competency for his own expenses, it was much wondered at
that he took neither fees nor gifts from his clients.
Cicero: rather than an imbalance of wealth between rich and poor, a sort of middle class arose from all the expenditures. Wonder if he ‘made’ anything off that deal, too?
(388-389)
But there were some that endeavored to alter and subvert the whole
present state of affairs, not from any good motives, but for their
own private gain; and Pompey being at this time employed in the wars
with the kings of Pontus and Armenia, there was no sufficient force
at Rome to suppress any attempts at a revolution. These people had
for their head a man of bold, daring, and restless character, Lucius
Catiline, who was accused, besides other great offenses, of
deflowering his virgin daughter, and killing his own brother; for
which latter crime, fearing
to be prosecuted at law, he persuaded Sylla to set him down, as
though he were yet alive, amongst those that were to be put to death
by proscription.
This man the profligate citizens choosing for their captain, gave
faith to one another, amongst other pledges, by scarificing a man,
and eating of his flesh; and a great
part of the young men of the city were corrupted by him,
he providing for every one pleasures, drink, and women, and profusely
supplying the expense of these debauches. Etruria, moreover, had all
been excited to revolt, as well as a great part of Gaul within the
Alps. But Rome itself was in the most dangerous inclination to change
on account of the unequal distribution of wealth and property, those
of the highest rank and greatest spirit having impoverished
themselves by shows, entertainments ambition of offices, and
sumptuous buildings, and the
riches of the city having thus fallen into the hands of mean and
low-born persons.
So that there wanted but a slight impetus to set all in motion, it
being in the power of every daring man to overturn a sickly
commonwealth.
(390-391) For Cicero, it may be said, was the one
man, above all others who made the Romans feel how great a charm
eloquence lends to what is good, and how invincible justice is, if it
be well spoken; and that it is necessary for him who would
dexterously govern a commonwealth, in action, always to
prefer that which is honest before that which is popular, and in
speaking, to free the right and useful measure from everything
that may occasion offense.
(391)
But the old soldiers of Sylla were Cataline’s chief stimulus to
action. They had been disbanded all about Italy, but the greatest
number and the fiercest of them lay scattered among the cities of
Etruria entertaining themselves with dreams of new plunder and rapine
amongst the hoarded riches of Italy.
(392) “What harm,” said
he [Cataline], “when I see two bodies, the one lean and consumptive
with a head, the other great and strong without one, if I put a head
to that body which wants one?” This covert representation of the
senate and the people excited yet greater apprehensions in Cicero. He
put on armor, and was attended from his house by the noble citizens
in a body; and a number of the young men went with him into the
Plain. Here, designedly letting his tunic slip partly off from his
shoulders, he showed his armor underneath, and discovered his danger
to the spectators; who, being much moved at it, gathered round about
him for his defence. At length, Catiline was by a general suffrage
again put by, and Silanus and Murena chosen consuls.
(392-393) And
when Quintus Arrius a mna of praetorian dignity, recounted to them
how soldiers were collecting in companies in Etruria, and Manlius
stated to be in motion with a large force, hovering about those
cities, in expectation of intelligence from Rome, the senate made a
decree to place all in the hands of the consuls, who should undertake
the conduct of everything, and do their best to save the state.
(393)
Catiline, therefore, immediately left the town, with three hundred
armed men; and assuming, as if he had been a magistrate, the rods,
axes, and military ensigns, he went to Manlius, and having got
together a body of near twenty thousand men, with these he marched to
the several cities, endeavoring to persuade or force them to revolt.
So it being now come to open war, Antonius was sent forth to fight
him.
(394) The night appointed for the design was one of the
Saturnalia; swords, flax, and sulphur they carried and hid in the
house of Cethegus; and providing one hundred men, and dividing
the city into as many parts, they had allotted to every one singly
his proper place,
so that in a moment, many kindling the fire, the city might be in a
flame all together.
(395) These
counsels of inconsidering men, who conversed together over wine and
with women, Cicero watched with
sober industry and forethought,
and with most admirable sagacity, having several emissaries abroad,
who observed and traced with him all that was done, and keeping also
a secret correspondence with many who pretended to join in the
conspiracy.
(395-396) went to the house of a friend and near
neighbor; for his own was taken up by the women who were celebrating
with secret rites the feast of the goddess whom the Romans call the
Good, and the Greeks the Women’s goddess.
(396-397) To him
[Silanus] all consented in order till it came to Caius Caesar, who
was afterwards dictator. He was then but a young man, and only at the
outset of his career, but had already directed his hopes and policy
to that course by which he afterwards changed the Roman state into a
monarchy. Of this others foresaw nothing; but Cicero had seen reason
for strong suspicion, though without obtaining any sufficient means
of proof. And there were some indeed that said that he was very near
being discovered, and only just escaped him; others
are of opinion that Cicero voluntarily overlooked and neglected the
evidence against him,
for fear of his friends and power; for it was very evident to
everybody that if Caesar was to be accused with the conspirators,
they were more likely to be saved with him, than he to be punished
with them.
Cicero: a calculated though sub-optimal move in the game.
(398) The people, affrighted at what was doing, passed along in silence, especially the young men; as if, with fear and trembling, they were undergoing a rite of initiation into some ancient sacred mysteries of aristocratic power. Thus passing from the marketplace, and coming to the gaol, he delivered Lentulus to the officer, and commanded him to execute him; and after him Cethegus, and so all the rest in order, he brought and delivered up to execution. And when he saw many of the conspirators in the market-place, still standing together in companies, ignorant of what was done, and waiting for the night, supposing the men were still alive and in a possibility of being rescued, he called out in a loud voice, and said, “They did live;” for so the Romans, to avoid inauspicious language, name those that are dead.
Cicero: compare to Socrates pissing off the jury in Xenophon account.
(399) At this time, therefore, his authority was very great in the city; but he created himself much envy, and offended very many, not by any evil action, but because he was always lauding and magnifying himself.
Cicero: knew the value of commending others, reaping the rewards of positive feedback.
(399-400) Nevertheless, though he was intemperately fond of his own glory, he was very free from envying others, and was, on the contrary, most liberally profuse in commending both the ancients and his contemporaries, as any one may see in his writings. And many such sayings of his are also remembered; as that he called Aristotle a river of flowing gold, and said of Plato’s Dialogues, that if Jupiter were to speak, it would be in a language like theirs.
Cicero: only two Greek epistles written in anger.
(400)
There are letters extant from Cicero to Herodes, and others to his
son, in which he recommends the study of philosophy under Cratippus.
There is one in which he blames Gorgias, the rhetorician, for
enticing his son into luxury and drinking, and, therefore, forbids
him his company. And this, and one other to Pelops, the Byzantine,
are the only two
of his Greek epistles which seem to be written in anger.
(402)
To use this sharp raillery against opponents and antagonists in
judicial pleading seems allowable rhetoric. But he
excited much ill-feeling by his readiness to attack any one for the
sake of a jest.
(406)
But as soon as it was publicly known that he was fled, Clodius
proposed to the people a decree
of exile, and by
his own order interdicted him fire and water, prohibiting any within
five hundred miles in Italy to receive him into their houses.
(407)
And yet he often desired his friends not to call him orator, but
philosopher, because he had made philosophy his business, and had
only used rhetoric as an instrument for attaining his objects in
public life. But the desire of glory has great power in washing the
tinctures of philosophy out of the souls of men, and in imprinting
the passions of the common people, by custom and conversation, in the
minds of those that take part in governing them, unless the
politician be very careful so to engage in public affairs as to
interest himself only in the affairs themselves, but not participate
in the passions that are consequent to them.
(408) Cicero had not
been long at Rome when, taking the opportunity of Clodius’s
absence, he went with a great company to the capitol, and there tore
and defaced the tribunician tables, in which were recorded the acts
done in the time of Clodius. And on Clodius calling him in question
for this, he answered that he, being of the patrician order, had
obtained the office of tribune against law, and therefore nothing
done by him was valid. Cato was displeased at this, and opposed
Cicero, not that he commended Clodius, but rather disapproved of his
whole administration; yet, he contended, it was an irregular and
violent course for the senate to vote the illegality of so many
decrees and acts, including those of Cato’s own government in
Cyprus and at Byzantium. This occasioned a breach between Cato and
Cicero, which, though it came not to open enmity, yet made a more
reserved friendship between them.
(412) And from that timne
forward he [Caesar] continued to treat him with honor and respect, so
that, when Cicero wrote an oration in praise of Cato, Caesar in
writing an answer to it, took occasion to commend Cicero’s own life
and eloquence, comparing him to Pericles and Theramenes. Cicero’s
oration was called Cato; Caesar’s, anti-Cato.
(413)
But when Cicero began to speak, he wonderfully moved him, and
proceeded in his speech with such caried pathos, and such a charm of
language, that the
color of Caesar’s countenance often changed, and it was evident
that all the passions of his soul were in commotion.
At length, the orator touching upon the Pharsalian battle, he was so
affected that his body trembled, and some of the papers he held
dropped out of his hands. And thus he was overpowered, and acquitted
Ligarius.
Cicero: translate philosophical dialogues, logical, physical and technical terms into Roman idiom. Fulfilling Apollodorus prophecy? If I had the Greek text it would be easy to find this passage!
Cicero: remember what other word he coined.
(413) Henceforth, the commonwealth being changed into a monarchy, Cicero withdrew himself from public affairs, and employed his leisure in instructing those young men that would, in philosophy; and by the near intercourse he thus had with some of the noblest and highest in rank, he again began to possess great influence in the city. The work and object to which he set himself was to compose and translate philosophical dialogues and to render logical and physical terms into the Roman idiom. For he it was, as it is said, who first or principally gave Latin names to phantasia, syncatathesis, epokhe, catalepsis, atamon, ameres, kenon, and other such technical terms, which, either by metaphor or other means of accommodation, he succeeded in making intelligible and expressible to the Romans. For his recreation, he exercised his dexterity in poetry, and when he was set to it would make five hundred verses in a night.
Cicero: had design to write history of his country, as Plutarch does here with his Lives?
(413-414)
He had a design, it is said, of writing the history of his country,
combining with it much of that of Greece, and incorporating in it all
the stories and legends of the past that he had collected. But his
purposes were interfered with by various public and various private
unhappy occurrences and misfortunes; for most of which he was himself
in fault.
(414) But Terentia, who denied them all, had the most
unmistakable defense furnished her by her husband himself, who not
long after married a young maiden for the love of her beauty, as
Terentia upbraided him; or as Tiro,
his emancipated slave, has written, for her riches, to discharge his
debts. (..)
Antony, who mentions this marriage in his answer to the Philippics,
reproaches him for putting away a wife with whom he had lived to old
age; ading some happy strokes of sarcasm on Cicero’s
domestic, inactive, unsoldier-like habits.
(414)
He had no concern in the design that was now forming against Caesar,
although, in general, he was Brutus’s most principal confidant, and
one who was as aggrieved at the present, and as desirous of the
former state of public affairs, as any other whatsoever. But they
feared his temper, as wanting courage, and his old age, in which the
most daring dispositions are apt to be timorous.
(416) And
Cicero’s readiness to join him was founded, it is said, on some yet
stronger motive; for it seems, while Pompey and Caesar were yet
alive, Cicero, in his sleep, had fancied himself engaged in calling
some of the sons of the senators into the capitol, Jupiter being
about, according to the dream, to declare one of them the chief ruler
of Rome. (..) The next day, going down into the Campus Martius, he
met the boys returning from their gymnastic exercises, and the first
was he [Octavius],
just as he had appeared to him in his dream.
(417) it was
principally Cicero’s hatred of Antony, and a temper unable to
resist honor, which fastened him to Caesar, with the purpose of
getting the support of Caesar’s power for his own public designs.
For the young man
went so far in his court to him, that he called him Father; at which
Brutus was so highly displeased,
that, in his epistles to Atticus, he reflected on Cicero saying, it
was manifest, by his courting Caesar for fear of Antony, he did not
intend liberty to his country, but an indulgent master to himself.
Notwithstanding, Brutus took Cicero’s son, then studying philosophy
at Athens, gave him a command, and employed him in various ways, with
a good result. Cicero’s
own power at this time was at the greatest height in the city, and he
did whatsoever he pleased;
he completely overpowered and drove out Antony, and sent the two
consuls, Hirtius and Pansa, with an army, to reduce him; and, on the
other hand, persuaded the senate to allow Caesar the lictors and
ensigns of a praetor, as though he were his country’s defender.
Cicero: reference to division of government by Antony like property and schedule of those to be put to death; remember what became of the two consuls.
(417-418) And now, more than at any other time, Cicero let himself be carried away and deceived, though an old man, by the persuasion of a boy. He joined him in soliciting votes, and procured the good-will of the senate, not without blame at the time on the part of his friends; and he, too, soon enough after, saw that he had ruined himself, and betrayed the liberty of his country. For the young man, once established, and possessed of the office of consul, bade Cicero farewell; and, reconciling himself to Antony and Lepidus, joined his power with theirs, and divided the government, like a piece of property, with them. Thus united, they made a schedule of above two persons who were to be put to death. But the greatest contention in all their debates was on the question of Cicero’s case. Antony would come to no conditions, unless he should be the first man to be killed. Lepidus held with Antony, and Caesar opposed them both. They met secretly and by themselves, for three days together, near the town of Bononia. The spot was not far from the camp, with a river surrounding it. Caesar, it is said, contended earnestly for Cicero the first two days; but on the third day he yielded, and gave him up. The terms of their mutual concessions were these: that Caesar should desert Cicero, Lepidus his brother Paulus, and Antony, Lucius Caesar, his uncle by his mother’s side. Thus they let their anger and fury take from them the sense of humanity, and demonstrated that no beast is more savage than man when possessed with power answerable to his rage.
Cicero: Antony has his head and hands cut off for writing Philippics.
(420)
Herennius cut off his head, and, by Antony’s command, his hands
also, by which his Philippics were written; for so Cicero styled
those orations he wrote against Antony, and so they are called to
this day.
(420) When these members of Cicero were brought to Rome,
Antony was holding an assembly for the choice of public officers; and
when he heard it, and saw them, he cried out, “Now let there be an
end of our proscriptions.” He commanded his head and hands to be
fastened up over the rostra, where the orators spoke; a sight which
the Roman people suddered to behold, and they believed they saw
there, not the face of Cicero, but the
image of Antony’s own soul.
And yet amidst these actions he did justice in one thing, by
delivering up Philologus
[an emancipated slave of
Quintus educated by Cicero in the liberal arts and sciences] to
Pomponia, the wife of Quintus; who, having got his body into her
power, besides other grievous punishments, made him cut off his own
flesh by pieces, and roast and eat it; for so some writers have
related. But Tiro, Cicero’s emancipated slave, has not so much as
mentioned the treachery of Philologus.
(420) Some long time after,
Caesar, I have been told, visiting one of his daughter’s sons,
found him with a book of Cicero’s in his hand. The boy for fear
endeavored to hide it under his gown; which Caesar perceiving, took
it from him, and, turning over a great part of the book standing,
gave it to him again, and said, “My child, this was a learned man,
and a lover of his country.” And immediately after he had
vanquished Antony, being then consul, he made Cicero’s son his
colleague in the office; and under that consulship the senate took
down all the statues of Antony, and abolished all the other honors
that had been given him, and decreed that none of that family should
thereafter bear the name of Marcus; and thus the final
acts of the punishment of Antony were, by the divine powers, devolved
upon the family of Cicero.
ANTONY
(421)
Under her [Julia], Antony received his education, she being, after
the death of his father, remarried to Cornelius Lentulus, who was put
to death by Cicero for having been of Catiline’s conspiracy. This,
probably, was the first ground and occasion of that mortal grudge
that Antony bore Cicero.
Antony: remember what JB thinks happens generally under society, a lessening of violence.
(423)
He had also a very good and noble appearance; his beard was well
grown, his forehead large, and his nose aquiline, giving him
altogether a bold, masculine look that reminded people of the faces
of Hercules in paintings and sculptures.
(424) Next, when the
senators would not suffer Caesar’s letters to be received or read
in the senate, by virtue of his office he read them publicly, and
succeeded so well, that many were brought to change their mind;
Caesar’s demands, as they appeared in what he wrote, being but just
and reasonable.
(425) This proposal [that Pompey and Caesar should
dismiss their armies] met with the greatest approval, they gave him
loud acclamations, and called for it to be put to the vote. But when
the consuls would not have it so, Caesar’s friends again made some
few offers, very fair and equitable, but were strongly opposed by
Cato, and Antony himself was commanded to leave the senate by the
consul Lentulus. So, leaving them with execrations, and disguising
himself in a servant’s dress, hiring a carriage with Quintus
Cassius, he went straight awat to Caesar, declaring at once, when
they reached the camp, that affairs at Rome were conducted without
any order or justice, that the privilege of speaking in the senate
was denied the tribunes, and that he who spoke for common fair
dealing was driven out and in danger of his life.
(425) Upon this,
Caesar set his army in motion, and marched into Italy; and for this
reason it is that Cicero writes in this Philippics that Antony was as
much the cause of the civil war as Helen was of the Trojan. But this
is but a calumny. For Caesar was not of so slight or weak a temper as
to suffer himself to be carried away, by the indignation of the
moment, into a civil war with his country, upon the sight of Antony
and Cassius seeking refuge in his camp meanly dressed and in a hired
carriage, without ever having thought of it or taken any such
resolution long before.
(427) After the battle, Caesar, being
created dictator, went in pursuit of Pompey, and sent Antony to Rome,
with
the character of Master of the Horse, who is in office and power next
to the dictator,
when present, and in his absence the first, and pretty nearly indeed
the sole magistrate. For on the appointment of a dictator, with the
one exception of the tribunes, all other magistrates cease to
exercise any authority in Rome.
(427) Dolabella,
however, who was tribune, being a young man and eager for change, was
now for bringing in a general measure for cancelling
debts,
and wanted Antony, who was his friend, and forward enough to promote
any popular project, to take part with him in this step.
(429) But
Antony opposed it with all his might, saying much that was bad
against Dolabella, and receiving the like language in return, till
Caesar could bear with the indecency no longer, and deferred the
matter to another time. Afterwards, when he came before the people to
proclaim Dolabella, Antony cried out that the auspices were
unfavorable, so that at last Caesar, much to Dolabella’s vexation,
yielded and gave up.
(429) When some one was accusing them both to
him, “It is not,” said he, “these well-fed, long-haired men
that I fear, but the pale and the hungry-looking;” meaning Brutus
and Cassius, by whose conspiracy he afterwards fell.
(429) And the
fairest pretext for that conspiracy was furnished, without his
meaning it, by Antony himself.
(430) It was settled that Antony,
whose bodily strength and high office made him formidable, should, at
Caesar’s entrance into the senate, when the deed was to be done, be
amused outside by some of the party in a conversation about some
pretended business.
Antony: possession of papers of Caesar key to success of power usurpation.
(431)
Calpurnia, Caesar’s wife, lodged with him the best part of the
property to the value of four thousand talents; he got also into his
hands all
Caesar’s papers wherein
were contained journals of all he had done, and draughts of what he
designed to do, which Antony made good use of.
. . . In
short, Antony’s behavior in Rome was very absolute, he himself
being consul and his two brothers in great place; Caius, the one,
being praetor, and Lucius, the other, tribune of the people.
(432)
each of them hurried about all through Italy to engage, by great
offers, the old soldiers that lay scattered in their settlements, and
to be the first to secure the troops that still remained
undischarged. Cicero was at this time the man of greatest influence
in Rome. He made use of all his art to exasperate the people against
Antony, and at length persuaded the senate to declare him a public
enemy, to send Caesar the rods
and axes and other marks of honor usually given to praetors,
and to issue orders to Hirtius and Pansa, who were the consuls, to
drive Antony out of Italy.
(433) It is common enough for people,
when they fall into great disasters, to discern what is right, and
what they ought to do; but there are but few who in such extremities
have the strength to obey their judgment, either in doing what it
approves or avoiding what it condemns; and a good many are so weak as
to give way to their habits all the more, and are incapable of using
their minds. Antony, on this occasion, was a most wonderful example
to his soldiers. He, who had just quitted so much luxury and
sumptuous living, made no difficulty now of drinking foul water and
feeding on wild fruits and roots.
Antony:
met with Caesar and Lepidus for conference to determine division of
empire, including savage composition of who would be put to death;
link to computarat?
(434)
Caesar,
perceiving that Cicero’s wishes were for liberty, had ceased to pay
any further regard to him, and was now employing the mediation of his
friends to come to a good understanding with Antony.
They both met together with Lepidus in a small island, where the
conference lasted three days. The
empire was soon determined of, it being divided amongst them as if it
had been their paternal inheritance.
That which gave them all the trouble was to agree who should be put
to death, each of them desiring to destroy his enemies and to save
his friends. But, in
the end, animosity to those they hated carried the day against
respect for relations and affection for friends;
and Caesar sacrificed Cicero to Antony, Antony gave up his uncle
Lucius Caesar, and Lepidus received permission to murder his brother
Paulus, or, as others say, yielded his brother to them. I
do not believe anything ever took place more truly savage or
barbarous than this composition,
for, in this exchange of blood for blood, they were equally guilty of
the lives they surrendered and of those they took; or, indeed, more
guilty in the case of their friends, for whose deaths they had not
even the justification of hatred. To complete the reconciliation, the
soldiery, coming about them, demanded that confirmation should be
given to it by some alliance of marriage; Caesar should marry Clodia,
the daughter of Fulvia, wife to Antony. This also being agreed to,
three hundred persons were put to death by proscription. Antony gave
orders to those that were to kill Cicero to cut off his head and
right hand, with which he had written his invectives against him;
and, when they were brought before him, he regarded them joyfully,
actually bursting out more than once into laughter, and, when he had
satiated himself with the sight of them, ordered them to be hung up
above the speaker’s place in the forum, thinking thus to insult the
dead, while in fact he only exposed his own wanton arrogance, and his
unworthiness to hold the power that fortune had given him.
(435)
When it was manifest that nothing would ever be enough for Antony,
Caesar at last called for a division of property.
(439-440) For
her actual beauty, it is said, was not in itself so remarkable that
none could be compared with her, or that no one could see her without
being struck by it, but the contact of her presence, if you lived
with her, was irresistible; the attraction of her person, joining
with the charm of her conversation, and the character that attended
all she said or did, was something bewitching. It was a pleasure
merely to hear the sound of her voice, with which, like an instrument
of many strings, she could pass from one lanugage to another; so that
there were few of the barbarian nations that she answered by an
interpreter; to most of them she spoke herself, as to the Ethiopians,
Troglodytes, Hebrews, Arabians, Syrians, Medes, Parthians, and many
others, whose language she had learnt; which was all the more
surprising because most of the kinds, her predecessors, scarcely gave
themselves the trouble to acquire the Egyptian tongue, and several of
them quite abandoned the Macedonian.
Antony: in company with Cleopatra as inimitable livers.
(440)
They had a sort of company, to which they gave a particular name,
calling it that of the Inimitable
Livers.
(455)
And when they tried vegetables and roots, they found such as are
commonly eaten very scarce, so that they were constrained to venture
upon any they could get, and, among others, they
chanced upon an herb that was mortal, first taking away all sense and
understanding.
He that had eaten of it remembered nothing in the world, and employed
himself only in moving great stones from one place to another, which
he did with as much earnestness and industry as if it had been a
business of the greatest consequence. Through all the camp there was
nothing to be seen but men grubbing upon the ground at stones, which
they carried from place to place. But in the end they threw up bile
and died, as wine, moreover, which was the one antidote,
failed.
(461) it would be intolerable to have it said of the two
greatest commanders in the world that they had involved the Roman
people in a civil war, the one out of passion for, the other out of
resentment about, a woman.
(462) Cleopatra was then, as at other
times when she appeared in public, dressed in the habit of the
goddess Isis, and gave audience to the people under the name of the
New Isis.
(473) But Antony, leaving the city and the conversation
of his friends, built him a dwelling-place in the water, near Pharos,
upon a little mole which he cast up in the sea, and there, secluding
himself from the company of mankind, said he desired nothing but to
live the life of Timon; as indeed, his case was the same, and the
ingratitude and injuries which he suffered from those he had esteemed
his friends made him hate and distrust all mankind.
(478) Those
that were present say that nothing was ever more sad than this
spectacle, to see Antony, covered all over with blood and just
expiring, thus drawn up, still holding up his hands to her, and
lifting up his body with the little force he had left.
(479) In
the meanwhile, Caesar
made his entry into Alexandria, with Areius the philosopher at his
side, holding him by the hand and talking with him;
desiring that all his fellow-citizens should see what honor was paid
to him, and should look up to him accordingly from the very first
moment.
MARCUS
BRUTUS
(486)
Of all the sects of the Greek philosophers, though there was none of
which he had not been a hearer, and in which he had not made some
proficiency, yet he chiefly esteemed the Platonists; and not much
approving of the modern and middle Academy, as it is called, he
applied himself to the study of the ancient.
(486) In Latin, he
had by exercise attained a sufficient skill to be able to make public
addresses and to plead a cause; but in Greek, he must be noted for
affecting the
sententious and short Laconic way of speaking
in sundry passages of his
epistles;
(487) Nevertheless, applying himself to the business, he
behaved himself so well in it that he was highly commended by Cato,
and having turned all the good of Ptolemy into ready money, he saild
with the greatest part of it in his own ship to Rome.
(489) It is
reported that Caesar, when the first heard Brutus speak in public,
said to his friends, “I know not what this young man intends, but,
whatever he intends, he intends vehemently.” For his
natural firmness of mind, not easily yielding, or complying in favor
of every one that entreated his kindness, once set into action upon
motives of right reason and deliberate moral choice, whatever
direction it thus took, it was pretty sure to take effectively, and
to work in such a way as not to fail in its object.
(493)
From this time they tried the inclinations of all their acquaintances
that they durst trust, and communicated the secret to them, and took
into the design not only their familiar friends, but as many as they
believed bold and brave and despisers of death. For which reason they
concealed the plot from Cicero, though he was very much trusted and
as well beloved by them all, lest, to his own disposition, which was
naturally timorous, adding now the weariness and caution of old age,
by his weighing,
as he would do, every particular, that he might not make one step
without the greatest security, he should blunt the edge of their
forwardness and resolution in
a business which required all the despatch imaginable.
(499) It
was indeed the opinion of all the others, when they consulted about
the execution of their design, that it was necessary to cut off
Antony with Caesar, looking upon him as an insolent man, an afffector
of monarchy, and one that, by his familiar intercourse, had gained a
powerful interest with the soldiers.
(500) But the next day, the
senate being assembled in the temple of the Earth, and Antony and
Plancus and Cicero having made orations recommending concord in
general and an act of oblivion, it was decreed that the men should
not only be put out of all fear of danger, but that the consuls
should see what honors and dignities were proper to be conferred upon
them.
(500) For as before in sparing the life of Antony he could
not be without some blame from his party, and thereby setting up
against the conspiracy a dangerous and difficult enemy, so now, in
suffering him to have the ordering of the funeral, he
fell into a total and irrevocable error.
(503)
Cicero himself, out of the hatred which he bore to Antony, sided with
young Caesar; which Brutus took so ill that he treated with him very
sharply in his letters, telling him that he perceived Cicero could
well enough endure a tyrant, but was afraid that he who hated him
should be the man; that in writing and speaking so well of Caesar, he
should that his aim was to have an easy slavery. “But our
forefathers,” said Brutus, “could not brook even gentle masters.”
Further he added, that for his part he had not as yet fully resolved
whether he should make war or peace; but that as to one point he was
fixed and settled, which was, never to be a slave; that he wondered
Cicero should fear the dangers of a civil war, and not be much more
afraid of a dishonorable and infamous peace; that the very reward
that was to be given him for suberting Antony’s tyranny was the
privilege of establishing Caesar as tyrant in his place. This is the
tone of Brutus’ first letters to Cicero.
(504) Brutus took ship
from hence, and sailed to Athens, where he was received by the people
with great demonstrations of kindness, expressed in their acclamation
and the honors that were decreed him. He lived there with a private
friend, and was a constant auditor of Theomnestus, the Academic, and
Cratippus, the Peripatetic, with whom he so engaged in philosophical
pursuits that he seemed to have laid aside all thoughts of public
business, and to be wholly at leisure for study. But all this while,
being unsuspected, he was secretly making preparations for war;
(508)
Cassius was desirous to show no less respect and honor to Brutus than
Brutus did to him; but Brutus was still beforehand with him, coming
for the most part to him, both because he was the elder man, and of a
weaker constitution than himself. Men generally reckoned Cassius a
very expert soldier, but of a harsh and angry nature, and one that
desired to command rather by fear than love, though, on the other
side, among his familiar acquaintance he would easily give way to
jesting and play the buffoon. But Brutus, for his virtue, was
esteemed by the people, beloved by his friends, admired by the best
men, and hated not by his enemies themselves. For he was a man of a
singularly gentle nature, of a great spirit, insensible of the
passions of anger or pleasure or covetousness; steady and inflexible
to maintain his purpose for what he thought right and honest. And
that which gained him the greatest affection and reputation was the
entire faith in his intentions.
(509) many heard Antony himself
say that Brutus was the only man that conspired against Caesar out of
a sense of the glory and the apparent justice of the action, but that
all the rest rose up against the man himself, from private envy and
malice of their own.
(509) He [Brutus in a letter to Atticus] adds
further, that Mark Antony had received a just punishment for his
folly, who, when he might have been numbered with Brutus and Cassius
and Cato, would join himself to Octavius; that though they should not
now be both overcome, they soon would fight between themselves. And
in this he seems to ahve been no ill prophet.
(512) The council
agreed to his opinion, and Pompey the Great (an example of incredible
and unforeseen events) was slain, as the sophister himself had the
impudence to boast, through the rhetoric and cleverness of Theodotus.
(..) being seized by him [Brutus as he passed through Asia] and
executed, had his death made more memorable than was his life.
(514)
Thus one night before he passed out of Asia, he was very late all
alone in his tent, with a dim light burning by him, all the rest of
the camp being hushed and silent; and reasoning about something with
himself and very thoughtful, he fancied some one came in, and,
looking up towards the door, he saw a terrible and strange appearance
of an unnatural and frightful body standing by him without speaking.
Brutus boldly asked it, “What are you, of men or gods, and upon
what business come to me?” The figure answered, “I am your evil
genius, Brutus; you shall see me at Philippi.” To which Brutus, not
at all disturbed, replied, “Then I shall see you.”
(516) For
though in other things he had accustomed his commanders to use all
frugality and self-control, yet he thought that the riches which
soldiers carried about them in their hands and on their bodies would
add something of spirit to those that were desirous of glory, and
would make those that were covetous and lovers of gain fight the more
valiantly to preserve the arms which were their estate.
(518)
[answering Cassius] “For I already have given up my life to my
country on the Ides of March; and have lived since then a second life
for her sake, with liberty and honor.”
(519) Caesar was nowhere
to be found after his being conveyed out of the tents; though some of
the soldiers showed Brutus their swords bloody, and declared that
they had killed him, describing his person and age.
(520) And this
one mistake was the ruin of their affairs, that Brutus did not come
to the relief of Cassius, thinking, that he, as well as himself, was
conqueror; and that Cassius did not expect the relief of Brutus,
thinking that he too was overcome.