DISCOVERY 



263 



to do, he looked steadfastly upon his murderers. Such 

 an appearance of misery in his face, wasted with anxiety, 

 so much affected the attendants of Herennius that they 

 covered their faces. Cicero stretched his neck out of the 

 litter to receive the blow, and Herennius slew him. Thus 

 fell Cicero, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. Herennius 

 cut off liis head, and, by Antony's command, his hands too, 

 with which he had written the Philippics (denouncing 

 Antony's crimes). 



When these parts of Cicero's body were brought to 

 Rome, .A.ntony happened to beholding an assembly for the 

 election of magistrates. He ordered the head and hands 

 to be fastened up over the Rostra, a dreadful spectacle 

 to the Roman people, who thought they did not so much 

 see the face of Cicero, as a picture of Antony's soul." 



A glimpse of the outrage inflicted on altogether 

 innocent people is given us by the story of a man called 

 Kcstio. He had escaped with one slave who had once 

 been a favourite servant, but who had in some way 

 misbehaved himself so that his master had branded 

 him. Restio was startled to find that this slave had 

 followed him, and expected that the slave would 

 now avenge himself by turning informer. The slave, 

 however, told him not to be alarmed because he had 

 not forgotten all the kindness he had received before 

 he was branded, and so took his master to a cave and 

 secretly supplied him with food for several days. 

 Then as he found that several people in the place had 

 begun to suspect his master's retreat, and discovered 

 that a body of soldiers was seeking for him, the slave 

 ran after an old man whom he had noticed going alone 

 along the road, cut off his head, brought it to the 

 soldiers and claimed the reward. The soldiers gave 

 the slave nothing, but snatched away the head, so 

 as to secure the reward for themselves, and hurried 

 back to Rome. The slave then succeeded in getting 

 his master safely off to sea. 



The stupidity of the murderers appears verj' plainly 

 in the proclamation of one of the Triumvirs, Lepidus, 

 who wished to celebrate a Triumph for victories that 

 he had won in Spain ; expecting, naturally enough, that 

 people would be in no mood to engage in any public re- 

 joicing, he put up this proclamation : " With the blessing 

 of heaven, all good citizens, male and female, are to offer 

 sacrifice, and observe this day as my festival, and 

 anyone who is found not openly rejoicing shall be 

 included in the list of the proscribed." He conducted 

 his procession amid loud cheers. 



And there are some absurdities of a less grim kind. 

 A man called Pomponius, whose name was oh the 

 proscribed list, arrayed himself in his full robes of 

 office as a general, and dressing his slaves as lictors, 

 marched through the streets of Rome with these men 

 round him, at the gates demanded public chariots to 

 carrj' his party, and so made his way through Italy, 

 everj'one giving him in terror what he wanted ; 



finally he secured one of the ships of the na\'y to sail 

 to Scxtus Pompey, since he alleged that he had been 

 sent to make peace with him on behalf of the Triumvirs. 



Perhaps the most daring device which led to an 

 escape was that of Ventidius, w'hom we hear of after- 

 wards as a successful commander. He dressed himself 

 up as a centurion, put himself at the head of a force of 

 soldiers, and marched wherever he liked in Italy, 

 searching for a man whose name was on the proscribed 

 lists and whom, strangely enough, he could never 

 find ; — the man he was searching for was himself ! 



Two samples of the devotion of slaves to their 

 masters should not be omitted. The names of the 

 slaves are not even known. A favourite slave of 

 Appius, hearing that the soldiers were searching for his 

 master, dressed himself up in his master's clothes and 

 lay down on his master's couch, with his back to tlie 

 light. The soldiers came and killed him, but the delay 

 enabled his master to escape. And a man called 

 Milennius escaped by the similar devotion of another 

 slave, who dressed himself as his master, entered his 

 master's sedan-chair, and persuaded his fellow-slaves 

 to carry him off in it and to break into a run just as the 

 soldiers came into sight. They, seeing the litter being 

 carried off, rushed after it and killed the faithful slave. 

 But Milennius managed to escape. 



Now turn to the ston.' of Quintus Lucretius Vispullo 

 himself, as Appian tells it. 



Vispullo was wandering about the country with two 

 good servants, but through lack of supplies was forced 

 to turn homewards, riding in a litter as a sick man. 

 But one of his bearers had injured his leg, so Vispullo 

 had to walk, leaning on the other. As they came in sight 

 of the gate ' he saw a troop of soldiers running out ; 

 and, remembering that his father had been caught on 

 that very spot in the proscription of Sulla, he turned 

 aside with one of his servants to hide in one of the 

 tombs that stood beside the road. There they were 

 safe until the evening, when they were visited by a 

 party of tomb-robbers. Bat this faithful slave gave 

 himself up to be stripped of all he had to allow his 

 master to escape. But Vispullo waited for him at the 

 gate, and shared his clothes with him ; so they safely 

 reached his house in Rome, where his wife concealed 

 him between the two parts of a double roof, until at 

 last some friend succeeded in getting his name removed 

 by Octavian from the list of the proscribed. 



The identification of Vispullo with the author of the 

 inscription has been worked out very carefully by 

 Mommsen, whose commentary ° on the chronological, 

 historical, and legal points of the case left really nothing 



' Anyone who has been at Rome will remember how straight 

 a course the Appian Way keeps for miles outside the gate. 



- See his notes in the Corp. Inscc. Lai. at the places already 

 cited. 



