THE WIVES OF THE C^SARS. 149 



iua majus" the dictator dropt the act of condemnation from his grasp. 

 The orator, alive to this emotion, concluded his harangue Ligarius 

 was acquitted; and Calpurnia thought that momentary triumph of 

 his mercy over justice, the sublimest instant in his great career. 



The unostentatious temper of Calpurnia prescribed the even tenor 

 of her life. The successive years of her cohabitation with her hus- 

 baud multiplied the causes of their mutual affection ; but no peculiar 

 incident occurred by which Calpurnia's history is varied from a course 

 of systematic quietude and virtue. The well-known prodigy which 

 roused Calpurnia's fears was urged by her on Caesar as an omen of 

 his fate. In her dream,* she saw the dome upon his house thrown 

 down, and held him, at the same time, in her arms, a mangled corpse. 

 Awakened by the dreadful vision, the doors and windows of her 

 chamber were abruptly opened, by no apparent agency. Calpurnia's 

 fears were followed by suspicion ; her penetrating mind was led to 

 the interpretation of the suppressed yet labouring earnestness that 

 had for some time marked the countenance of many of the chiefs of 

 Rome. An air of such profound concern imported some momentous 

 enterprise to which her husband was a stranger; and her inference, 

 assisted by precarious yet emphatic hints, anticipated the event which 

 quickly followed. When she intimated her misgivings to her friends, 

 they joined with her in unavailing supplications to her husband to 

 defer his presence at the assembled senate. Caesar wavered ; but the 

 subtle raillery of Decius Brutus fixed him in his first determination.f 

 The paper of Artemidorus, and the admonition of Spurinna, were 

 neglected. In the senate, Cimber gave the sign for slaughter ; and 

 three-and-twenty wounds achieved 



" The foremost man of all this world." 



It would be hazardous,, perhaps useless, to arraign a deed which 

 has for ages been the theme of qualified applause ; but the murder, 

 or the sacrifice, of Caesar, in spite of declamation, can never be re- 

 garded as an act of patriotism unmixed with odious perfidy, or free' 

 from the suggestions of personal malevolence. The parricide of 

 Brutus for the commerce of Caesar and Servilia justifies the imputa- 

 tionj is indefensible, save on the questionable ground of patriotic 

 impulse. The victor of Pharsalia spared his life, and gave him his 

 protection ; he had favoured his advancement ; and the praetorate 

 of Brutus, and that of his associate Cassius, were derived from 

 the beneficence and patronage of Caesar. A philosophic student 

 of the history of Rome will separate the abstract fact of Caesar's 

 usurpation, from the eminent necessity of some effectual government, 

 by which the fearful anarchy of conflicting factions, and the still 



* "' Et Calpurnia uxor imaginata est, collabi fastigium domus, niaritumque 

 in gremio suo confodi ; ac subito cubiculi fores sponte patuerunt," Sueton. in 

 Jut. Cass. t 



f " Libellum que insidiarum indicem, ab obvio quodam porrectum, libellis 

 cseteris quos sinistra manu tenebat, quasi mox lecturus, commiscuit." Sueton. 

 in JuL Cces. 



% " Macrobius (1. 2. c. 2.) has preserved the jest of Cicero, on Caesar's liber- 

 tine connexion with Servilia and her daughter Junia Tertia. The latter was 

 the wife of Caius Cassius ; the former was the mother of Marcus Brutus. 



