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STATE OF EOME AFTER CAESAR’S DEATH.
LECTURE C.
No provision at all had been made as to what was to be done
after Caesar’s death, especially with regard to Antony. In the
hêat of the moment, when everything was possible, Cassius had
demanded that Antony too should be killed; but Brutus de-
clared that the sacrifice of one life was enough, an opinion
which was decidedly wrong. Many ought to have been sacri-
ficed, to make all things straight; but Antony ought to have
been killed at any risk, if a simulacrum of the republic was to
continue; for it was in reality he, and men like him, who had
rendered Caesar’s government odious. Antony especially had
induced him to take the diadem ; and it is acknowledged on all
hands that Caesar alone would have governed in a beneficial
manner. But as it was, the tumult and commotion were great,
and in their alarm most of the senators took to flight, and a few
only remained at Rome. It was a courageous act on the part
of Cicero that he, with a few senators, immediately and pub-
licly declared himself in favour of the conspirators as tyranni-
cides. Both parties were blind at the moment, and knew not
what was to come next. One might have expected that the
people would rejoice at the death of Caesar, as public opinion
had expressed itself so loudly against him, ever since the affair
with the tribunes Caesetius and Marullus; but the people
is a hundred-headed monster, and there is nothing more
fickle and inconstant than man. The same persons who had
cursed Caesar only a few days before, had now quite changed
their minds: they cursed the murderers and lamented Caesar.
It is a common thing with men who have no character, to
wish for extraordinary events ; but as soon as the danger
which is inseparable from them appears, they denounce those
whom they urged on before.
The tumult at Rome lasted for several days. Caesar had
fallen on the lðth of March, and on the 17th there was a
meeting of the senate, to deliberate what was to be done
during the state of excitement. At this meeting Antony
shewed a conduct very different from what had been anti-
cipated; he offered his hand in token of reconciliation, and
expressed himself in a manner which scarcely any one could
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take to be sincere ; but the senate, nevertheless, became pacified,
as it was thought that Antony was obliged by circumstances
to act in the way he did. Cicero also came forward and
spoke, and a general amnesty was decreed concerning all that
had taken place; just as had been the case at Athens after the
expulsion of the Thirty Tyrants. But the great question was,
what to do? Brutus and Cassius had fled to the Capitol to
escape from the storm, for public opinion in the city was
decidedly against them. A great number of Caesar’s soldiers
were in the city, and many more flocked thither from other
parts. The excitement was so great, that there was ground for
apprehending acts of extreme violence. Brutus and Cassius
began negotiating from the Capitol. The decrees of the
senate, intended to bring about a reconciliation, were full of
contradictions. While one party was inclined to honour the
murderers of Caesar, the decrees of the senate were framed in
the very opposite spirit. The proposal which was made to
declare Caesar a tyrant, and his acts to be invalid, was not
only rejected, but the senate went so far, in its fear of Caesar’s
veterans, as to decree divine honours to him, and the express
validity of all his regulations. It had further been proposed
that his will should be declared void; but L. Piso, his father-
in-law, opposed the measure with obstinate impudence, and
induced the senate to recognise the will as valid, to have it
read in public, and carried into execution. Piso’s intention
was to inspire the soldiers and the populace with enthusiasm
for the deceased, who had possessed enormous riches, which
had been amassed partly in war, and partly in the administra-
tion of the republic. IIe had left munificent legacies to the
soldiers and every Boman citizen, and these bequests were
sure to produce the effect which the friends of Cacsar desired.
Some few persons wisely proposed that his burial should
take place quite quietly and in private; but this plan too was
frustrated by the Iiiipetiiosity of the faction and the cowardice
of the senate; and it was resolved that the body should be
buried with the greatest solemnity in the Campus Martius.
It was a general custom for the bodies of distinguished persons
to be carried on a bier uncovered, as is still the fashion in
Italy. The bier was put down in the Forum before the
rostra, and one of the relatives of the deceased delivered a
funeral ora:ion. The nearest relative of Caesar was Antony,