404 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 



Assassina- 

 tion of 

 Caesar. 



Conduct of 

 the con, 

 spirators. 



Conduct of 

 Antony and 

 Lepidus. 



Th con. 

 spirators 

 pardoned. 



after the battle of Pharsalia. The one sought for the 

 equivocal reputation of sacrificing all the ties of friend- 

 ship and of gratitude to a virtue that assassins never 

 feel ; while the other panted for revenge against a su- 

 perior, whose pre-eminence had mortified his pride, 

 and exasperated his hatred. 



The rumour that the crown was to be offered to 

 Caesar on the ides of March, (which was itself proba- 

 bly the invention of the conspirators,) induced them to 

 fix upon that day for the execution of their designs 

 and thus to sanction their atrocities by making them 

 appear to lie the punishment of a crime which existed 

 only in their own imaginations. Among the fables of 

 Roman superstition, it has been said that the augurs had 

 predicted that this day would be fatal to Caesar ; and 

 on the night preceding, his wife Calphurnia is reported 

 to have dreamt of his assassination. These unlucky 

 omens are said to have changed his designs of going 

 that day to the senate ; but one of the conspirators pre- 

 vailed upon him to persist in his resolution. 



No sooner had Caesar taken his place in the senate- 

 house, than the conspirators approached near his per- 

 son. Cimber advanced as a suppliant, to request the 

 remission of a sentence of banishment which had been 

 passed upon his brother. The conspirators seconded 

 this application, and, when Cimber gave the signal by 

 taking hold of the bottom of Caesar's robe, Casca stab- 

 bed him from behind in the shoulder, when Caesar in- 

 stantly turned round, and struck him on the arm with 

 the style of his tablet. The conspirators now thronged 

 around him, and he received a wound in the breast, 

 while Cassius stabbed him in the face. In this crisis 

 Caesar defended himself with vigour, and threw down 

 the opposing conspirators ; when on a sudden he saw 

 Brutus among the number, who came up and drove his 

 dagger into his thigh. Astonished at the desertion of 

 his friend, Caesar uttered the celebrated exclamation, 

 Et lu Brute, " and you too, Brutus," and, muffling up 

 his face in his robe, he sank at the base of Pompey's 

 statue pierced with twenty-three wounds. 



Having thus accomplished their object^, the conspi- 

 rators attempted to vindicate their conduct before the 

 senate ; but though they alleged that they had freed 

 their country of a tyrant, and were actuated by no 

 other motives than a love of freedom, yet the people dis- 

 trusted their professions; and the conspirators retired 

 for safety to the capitol, the approaches of which Bru- 

 tus had defended by a body of gladiators. 



Though these blood-stained patriots, however, had 

 freed Rome of one whom they considered to be her op- 

 pressor, they made no provision for protecting the com- 

 monwealth from those ebullitions of popular frenzy 

 which such an event might excite ; and they had de- 

 vised no schemes, and proposed no sacrifices, for pre- 

 venting other tyrants from starting up from the tomb 

 of Caesar. 



While the Roman patriots were skulking in the ca- 

 pitol with their daggers at their sides, and under the 

 protection of armed criminals, Antony and Lepidus 

 were straining every nerve to gain the sovereign au- 

 thority. 



Lepidus and Antony took possession of the forum 

 with a band of soldiers, and, after seizing all Caesar's 

 papers and money, they assembled the senate to deter- 

 mine whether Caesar was an usurper or a legal magis- 

 trate, and what should be the fate of those who slew 

 him. In such a crisis, where their lives and properties 

 were exposed to two infuriated parties, the senate ap- 



proved of all the acts of Csesar, and at the same time Roman 

 granted a general pardon to the conspirators. Empire. 



Though dissatisfied with the decree, Antony is said """" ""v^""" 

 to have induced Caesar's secretary to alter his will, and 

 insert in it many liberal benefactions to the Roman peo- 

 ple. He then demanded that Caesar's funeral obsequies 

 should be performed; and carrying the body with 

 great pomp and solemnity into the forum, he pro- 

 nounced a funeral oration, which excited the feelings, 

 and roused against the conspirators the hatred of all 

 who heard it. At the beginning of the oration, Antony 

 read aloud Caesar's will, in which he left Octavian, his 

 sister's grandson, as his heir ; Brutus was to inherit 

 three- fourths of his private fortune. The gardens on the 

 other side of the Tiber were bequeathed to the Roman 

 people, and to every citizen there was left 300 sester- 

 cia. After many eloquent appeals to their sympathy, 

 the people cried out for revenge, and, armed with flam- 

 ing brands from the funeral pile, they ran to set fire to 

 the houses of the conspirators, who found it prudent 

 to retire from the city. Divine honours were then 

 granted to the memory of Caesar, an altar was erected 

 on the site of the funeral pile ; and a monument was 

 afterwards raised on the same spot, and inscribed To 

 the Father of his Country. Having thus secured the 

 affections of the people, Antony endeavoured to bring 

 over the senate, and forgetting his vow to revenge the 

 death of Caesar, his only object was to consolidate that 

 power, which, by a combination of circumstances and 

 expedients, he had contrived to acquire. 



Octavius, or Octavianus Caesar, the grand nephew, Oetaviu* 

 and the adopted son of Caesar, was now at Apollonia returns to 

 where he had been sent to the study of Greek liter- 

 ature. Though only in the 18th year of his age, he re- 

 solved to return to Rome to claim the inheritance which 

 Caesar had bequeathed to him, and to revenge the death 

 of his kinsman' and benefactor. From Antony, in whom 

 he expected an ardent abettor, he met with the coldest 

 reception, and, instead of paying him the fortune be- 

 queathed him by Caesar, he brought forward every pre- 

 tence for delaying a settlement. In order to pay the 

 legacies which Caesar had left, particularly the one due 

 to the people, Octavianus sold his own patrimonial 

 estate, and thus gained the highest popularity. Hand- 

 some in his personal appearance, insinuating in his ad- 

 dress, fluent and well informed in his conversation", 

 and above all, bearing the name of Caesar, a name dear to 

 the Roman people, Octavianus soon became a favourite, 

 and crowds of his uncle's followers flocked to his stand- 

 ard. He was soon joined by some of the legions of 

 Mark Antony, who cherished the desire, which was 

 universal among the Roman army, to inflict vengeance 

 on the conspirators. From these causes the Roman em- 

 pire was divided into three parties, that of Octavianus, 

 successor of Caesar; of Antony, who aimed at absolute 

 power ; and of the conspirators, whose avowed object 

 was to restore the rights of the senate. 



While Antony was besieging Mutina, in Cisalpine 

 Gaul, into which Brutus had retired with his forces, 

 Octavianus returned to Rome with 10,000 men, and 

 having, through the eloquence of Cicero, attached the 

 senate to his cause, a decree was passed, commanding 

 Antony to raise the siege of Mutina, to evacuate Cisal- 

 pine Gaul, and to await on the banks of the Rubicon 

 the farther commands of the senate. As this order was 

 treated with contempt, the two consuls Hirtius and Pansa 

 joined their forces to those of Octavianus. After some 

 battles of no. importance they brought Antony to a ge- 



