Dio's Rome, Volume 3

[-7-] Most of this was done by Lepidus and Antony. They had been honored by the former Caesar for a very long time and as they had been in office and holding governorships most of the period they had many enemies. It appeared as if Caesar had a part in the business merely because of his sharing the authority, for he himself was not at all anxious to kill any large number. He was not naturally cruel and had been brought up in his father's ways. Moreover, as he was young and had just entered the political arena, there was no inevitable necessity for his bitterly hating many persons, and he wished to have people's affection. This is indicated by the fact that from the time he broke off his joint rulership with his colleagues and held the power alone he did nothing of the sort. And at this time he not only refrained from destroying many but preserved a large number. Those also who betrayed their masters or friends he treated most harshly and those who helped anybody most leniently. An instance of it occurs in the case of Tanusia, a woman of note. She concealed her husband Titus Vinius, who was proscribed, at first in a chest at the house of a freedman named Philopoemen27 and so made it appear that he had been killed. Later she waited for a national festival, which a relative of hers was to direct, and through the influence of his sister Octavia brought it about that Caesar alone of the three entered the theatre. Then she sprang up and informed him of the deception, of which he was still ignorant, brought in the very chest and led from it her husband. Caesar, astonished, released all of them (death being the penalty also for such as concealed any one) and enrolled Philopoemen among the knights.

[-8-] He, then, saved the lives of as many as he could. Lepidus allowed his brother Paulus to escape to Miletus and toward others was not inexorable. But Antony killed savagely and relentlessly not only those whose names had been posted, but likewise those who had attempted to assist any of them. He had their heads in view when he happened to be eating and sated himself to the fullest extent on this most unholy and pitiable sight. Fulvia also put to death many herself both by reason of enmity and on account of their money, and some with whom her husband was not acquainted. When he saw the head of one man, he exclaimed: "I didn't know about him!" Cicero's head also being brought to them (he had been overtaken and slain while trying to flee), Antony uttered many bitter reproaches against him and then ordered it to be exposed on the rostra more prominently than the rest, in order that he might be seen in the place from which he used to be heard inveighing against him,—together with his right hand, just as it had been cut off. Before it was taken away Fulvia took it in her hands and after abusing it spitefully and spitting upon it, set it on her knees, opened the mouth, and pulled out the tongue, which she pierced with the brooches that she used for her hair, at the same time uttering many brutal jests. Yet even this pair saved some persons from whom they got more money than they could expect to obtain by their death. But in order that the places for their names on the tablets might not be empty, they inscribed others in their stead. Except that Antony did release his uncle at the earnest entreaty of his mother Julia he performed no other praiseworthy act.

[-9-] For these causes the murders had great variety of detail, and the rescues that fell to the lot of some were of many kinds. Numbers were ruined by their most intimate friends, and numbers were saved by their most inveterate foes. Some slew themselves and others were given freedom by the very pursuers, who approached as if to murder them. Some who betrayed masters or friends were punished and others were honored for this very reason: of those who helped others to survive some paid the penalty and others received rewards. Since there was not one man but three, who were acting in all cases each according to his own desire and for his private advantage, and since the same persons were not enemies or friends of the whole group, since, also, two of them might be anxious for some one to be saved whom the third wished to destroy, or for some one to perish whom the third wished to survive, many complicated situations resulted, according as they felt good-will or hatred toward any one. [-10-] I, accordingly, shall omit an accurate and detailed description of all the events,—it would be a vast undertaking and would not add much to the history,—but shall relate what I deem to be most worthy of remembrance. Here is one.

A slave had hidden his master in a cave, and then, when even so through another's information he was likely to perish, this slave changed clothes with him and wearing his master's apparel confronted the pursuers as the man himself and was slain. So they were turned aside, thinking they had despatched the desired man, but he when they had departed made his escape to some other place.

Or a second. Another slave had likewise changed his entire accoutrement with his master, and entered a covered litter which he made the other help to carry. When they were overtaken the one in the litter was killed without being even looked at, and the master, as a baggage-carrier, was saved. Those services were rendered by those servants to their benefactors in return for some kindness previously received.

There was also a branded runaway who so far from betraying the man who had branded him very willingly preserved him. He was detected in carrying him away and was being pursued, when he killed somebody who met him by chance and gave the latter's clothes to his master. Having then placed him upon a pyre he himself took his master's clothing and ring and going to meet the pursuers pretended that he had killed the man while fleeing. Because of his spoils and the marks of the branding he was believed and both saved the person in question and was himself honored.

The names connected with the above anecdotes have not been preserved. But in the case of Hosidius Greta his son arranged a funeral for him as though already dead and preserved him in that way. Quintus Cicero, the brother of Marcus, was secretly led away by his child and saved, so far as his rescuer's responsibility went. The boy concealed his father so well that he could not be discovered and when tormented for it by all kinds of torture did not utter a syllable. His father, learning what was being done, was filled at once with admiration and pity for the boy, and therefore came voluntarily to view and surrendered himself to the slayers.

[-11-] This gives an idea of the greatness of the manifest achievements of virtue and piety at the time. It was Popillius Laenas who killed Marcus Cicero, in spite of the latter's having done him favors as his advocate; and in order that he might depend not wholly on hearsay but also on the sense of sight to establish himself as the murderer of the orator, he set up an image of himself wearing a crown beside his victim's head, with an inscription that gave his name and the service rendered. By this act he pleased Antony so much that he secured more than the price offered. Marcus Terentius Varro was a man who had given no offence, but as his appellation was identical with that of one of the proscribed, except for one name, he was afraid that, this might lead him to suffer such a fate as did Cinna. Therefore he issued a statement making known this fact; he was tribune at the time. For this he became the subject of much idle amusement and laughter. The uncertainty of life, however, was evidenced by the very fact that Lucius Philuscius, who had previously been proscribed by Sulla and had escaped, had his name now inscribed again on the tablet and perished, whereas Marcus Valerius Messala, condemned to death by Antony, not only continued to live in safety but was later appointed consul in place of Antony himself. Thus many survive from inextricable difficulties and no fewer are ruined through a spirit of confidence. Hence a man ought not to be alarmed to the point of hopelessness by the calamities of the moment, nor to be elated to heedlessness by temporary exultation, but by placing his hope of the future half-way between both to make reliable calculations for either event. [-12-] This is the way it befell at that time: very many of those not proscribed were involved in the downfall of others on account of spite or money, and very many whose names were proclaimed not only survived but returned to their homes again, and some of them even held offices. They had a refuge, of course, with Brutus and Cassius and Sextus, and the majority directed their flight toward the last mentioned. He had been chosen formerly to command the fleet and had held sway for some time on the sea, so that he had surrounded himself with a force of his own, though he was afterward deprived of his office by Caesar. He had occupied Sicily, and then, when the order of proscription was passed against him, too, a host of assassinations took place, he aided greatly those who were in like condition. Anchoring near the coast of Italy he sent word to Rome and to the other cities offering among other things to those who saved anybody double the reward advertised for murdering the same and promising to the men themselves a reception and assistance and money and honors. [-13-] Therefore great numbers came to him. I have not even now recorded the precise total of those who were proscribed or slaughtered or who escaped, because many names originally inscribed on the tablets were erased and many were later inscribed in their place, and of these not a few were saved while many outside of these succumbed. It was not even allowed anybody to mourn for the victims, but several perished from this cause also. And finally, when the calamities broke through all the pretence they could assume and no one even of the most stout-hearted could any longer wear an air of indifference to them, but in all their work and conversation their countenances were overcast and they were not intending to celebrate the usual festival at the beginning of the year, they were ordered by a public notice to appear in good spirits, on pain of death if they should refuse to obey. So they were forced to rejoice over the common evils as over blessings. Yet why need I have mentioned it, when they voted to those men (the triumvirs, I mean) civic crowns and other distinctions as to benefactors and saviors of the State? They did not think of being held to blame because they were killing a few, but wished to receive additional praise for not putting more out of the way. And to the populace they once openly stated that they had emulated neither the cruelty of Marius and Sulla so as to incur hatred, nor the mildness of Caesar so as to be despised and as a result become objects of a conspiracy.

[-14-] Such were the conditions of the murders; but many other unusual proceedings took place in regard to the property of persons left alive. They actually announced, as if they were just and humane rulers, that they would give to the widows of the slain their dowries, to the male children a tenth, and to the female children a twentieth of the property of each one's father. This was not, however, granted save in a few cases: of the rest all the possessions without exception were ruthlessly plundered. In the first place they levied upon all the houses in the City and those in the rest of Italy a yearly rent, which was the entire amount from dwellings which people had let, and half from such as they occupied themselves, with reference to the value of the domicile. Again, from those who had lands they took away half of the proceeds. Besides, they had the soldiers get their support free from the cities in which they were wintering, and distributed them to various rural districts, pretending that they were sent to take charge of confiscated territory or that of persons who still opposed them. For this last class they had termed likewise enemies because they had not changed their attitude before the appointed day. So that the whole country outside the towns was also pillaged. The autocrats allowed the soldiers to do this to the end that, having their pay before the work, they might devote all their energy to their commanders' interests, and promised to give them cities and lands: And with this in view they further assigned to them persons to divide the land and settle them. The mass of the soldiers was made loyal by this course: of the more prominent they tempted some with the goods of those that had been despatched by lowering the price on certain articles and granting others to them free, and others they honored with the offices and priesthoods of the victims. The commanders, to make sure that they themselves should get the finest both of lands and buildings and give their followers what they pleased, gave notice that no one else should frequent the auction room unless he wanted to buy something: whoever did so should die. And they handled bona fide purchasers in such a way that the latter discovered nothing and paid the very highest price for what they wanted, and consequently had no desire to buy again.

[-15-] This was the course followed in regard to possessions. As to the offices and priesthoods of such as had been put to death they distributed them not in the fashion prescribed by law but however it suited them. Caesar resigned the office of consul, giving up willingly that which he had so desired as to make war for it, and his colleague gave up his place, whereupon they appointed Publius Ventidius, though praetor, and one other; and to the former's praetorship they promoted one of the aediles. Afterward they removed all the praetors (who held office five days longer than Ventidius) and sent them to be governors of the provinces, while they installed others in their places. Some laws were abolished and others introduced instead.

And, in brief, they ordered everything else just as seemed good to them. They did not, to be sure, lay claim to titles which were offensive and had been therefore done away with, but they managed matters according to their own wish and desire, so that Caesar's sovereignty by comparison appeared all gold.

[B.C. 42 (a. u. 712)]

In addition to transacting that year the business mentioned, they voted a temple to Serapis and Isis. [-16-] When Marcus Lepidus and Lucius Plancus became consuls tablets were again exposed, not bringing death to any one any longer, but defrauding the living of their property. They were collecting funds because they were in need of more money, due to the fact that they owed large sums to large numbers of soldiers, were expending considerable on works undertaken by the latter, and thought they should lay out far more still on wars in prospect. The fact that those taxes which had been formerly abrogated were now again put in force or established on a new basis, and the institution of joint contributions, many of which kept being levied on the land and on the servants, displeased people moderately, it can not be denied. But to have those who were in the slightest degree still prosperous, not only of the senators or knights but even among the freedmen, and men and women alike, bulletined on the tablets and another tenth of their wealth confiscated disturbed all beyond measure. For it was only nominally that a tenth of his property was exacted from each one: in reality not so much as a tenth was left. They were not ordered to contribute a stated amount according to the value of their possessions, but they had the duty of estimating their own goods and then, being accused of not having made a fair estimate, they lost the rest besides.

[-17-] If any still escaped this somehow, yet they were brought into straits by the assessments, and as they were terribly destitute of money they too were in a way deprived of everything. Moreover, the following device, distressing to hear but most distressing in practice, was put into operation. Whoever of them wished was allowed by abandoning his property afterward to make a requisition for one-third of it, which meant getting nothing and also having trouble. For when they were being openly and violently despoiled of two-thirds, how should they get back one-third, especially since goods were being sold for an infinitesimal price? In the first place, since many wares were being advertised for sale at once and the majority of men were without gold or silver, and the rest did not dare to buy because it would look as if they had something and they would place in jeopardy the remnant of their wealth, the prices were relaxed: in the second place, everything was sold to the soldiers far below its value. Hence no one of the private citizens saved anything worth mentioning. In addition to other drains they surrendered servants for the fleet, buying them if they had none, and the senators repaired the roads at their individual expense. Only those who wielded arms enjoyed superlative wealth. They, to be sure, were not satisfied with their pay, though it was in full, nor with their outside perquisites, though of vast extent, nor with the very large prizes bestowed for the murders, nor with the acquisition of lands, which was made almost without cost to them. But in addition some would ask for and receive all the property of the dying, and others still forced their way into the families of such as were old and childless. To such an extent were they filled with greed and shamelessness that one man asked from Caesar himself the property of Attia, Caesar's mother, who had died at the time and had been honored by a public burial.

[-18-] While these three men were behaving in this wise, they were also magnifying the former Caesar to the greatest degree. As they were all aiming at sole supremacy and were all striving for it, they vindictively pursued the remainder of the assassins, apparently in the idea that they were preparing from afar immunity for themselves in what they were doing, and safety; and everything which tended to his honor they readily took up, in expectation of some day being themselves deemed worthy of similar distinctions: for this reason they glorified him by the decrees which had been passed, and by others which they now added to them. On the first day of the year they themselves took an oath and made others swear that they would consider binding all his acts; this action is still taken in the case of all officials who successively hold power, or again of those who lived in his era, and have not been dishonored. They also laid the foundation of a hero-shrine in the Forum, on the spot where he had been burned, and escorted a kind of image of him at the horse-races together with a second statue of Venus. In case news of a victory came from anywhere they assigned the honor of a thanksgiving to the victor by himself and to Caesar, though dead, by himself. They compelled everybody to celebrate his birthday wearing laurel and in good spirits, passing a law that all others, neglected it, were accursed before Jupiter and before him while any senators or their sons should forfeit twenty-five myriads of denarii. Now it happened that the Ludi Apollinares fell on the same day, and they therefore voted that his natal feast should be held on the previous day,28 because (they said) there was an oracle of the Sibyl forbidding a festival to be celebrated during that twenty-four hours to any god except Apollo. [-19-] Besides granting him these privileges they regarded the day on which he had been murdered (on which there was always a regular meeting of the senate) as a dies nefas. The room in which he had been murdered they closed immediately and later transformed it into a privy. They also built the Curia Julia, called after him, next to the so-named Comitium, as had been voted. Besides, they forbade any likeness of him, because he was in very truth a god, to be carried at the funerals of his relatives, which ancient custom was still being observed. And they enacted that no one who took refuge in his shrine to secure immunity should be banished or stripped of his goods,—a right given to no one of the gods even, save to such as had a place in the days of Romulus. Yet after men began to gather there the place had inviolability in name without its effects; for it was so fenced about that no one at all could any longer enter it.

In addition to those gifts to Caesar they allowed the vestal virgins to employ one lictor each, because one of them had been insulted, owing to not being recognized, while returning home from dinner toward evening. The offices in the City they assigned for a greater number of years in advance, thus at the same time giving honor through the expected offices to those fitted for them and retaining a grasp on affairs for a longer time by means of those who were to hold sway.

[-20-] When this had been accomplished, Lepidus remained there, as I have said, to take up the administration of the City and of the rest of Italy, and Caesar and Antony started on their campaign. Brutus and Cassius had at first, after the compact made by them with Antony and the rest, gone into the Forum and discharged the activities of praetorship with the same diligence as before.

[B.C. 44 (a. u. 710)]

But when some began to be displeased at the killing of Caesar, they withdrew, pretending to be in haste to reach the governorships abroad to which they had been appointed. Cassius, who was praetor urbanus,29 had not yet finished his duties in connection with the Ludi Apollinares. However, though absent he accomplished that task most brilliantly through the medium of his fellow-praetor Antony, and did not himself sail away from Italy at once, but lingered with Brutus in Campania, to watch the course of events. And in their capacity as praetors they sent a certain number of letters to Rome to the people, until such time as Caesar Octavianus began to aspire to public position and to win the affections of the populace. Then, in despair of the republic and fear of him, they set sail. The Athenians gave them a splendid reception; for though they were indeed honored by nearly everybody else for what they had done, the inhabitants of this city voted them bronze images beside that of Harmodius and that of Aristogeiton, as having emulated them. [-21-] Meanwhile, learning that Caesar was making progress they neglected the Cretans and Bithynians, to whom they were directing their course, for among them they saw no aid forthcoming worthy the name: but they turned to Syria and to Macedonia, which did not, to be sure, appertain to them in the least, because they were teeming with money and troops for the occasion. Cassius proceeded to the Syrian country, because its inhabitants were acquainted with him and friendly as a result of his campaign with Crassus, while Brutus united Greece and Macedonia. The inhabitants would have followed him anywhere because of the glory of his deeds and in the hope of similar achievements, and they were further influenced by the fact that he had acquired numerous soldiers, some survivors of the battle of Pharsalus, who were still at this time wandering about in that region, and others who either by reason of disease or because of want of discipline had been left behind from the contingent that took the field with Dolabella. Money came to him, too, from Trebonius in Asia. So without the least effort, perhaps because it contained no force worth mentioning, he by this means gained the country of Greece. He reached Macedonia at the time that Gaius Antonius had just arrived and Quintus Hortensius, who had governed it previously, was about to lay down his office. However, he experienced no trouble. The departing official embraced his cause at once, and Antonius was weak, being hindered by Caesar's supremacy in Rome from performing any of the duties belonging to his office. The neighboring territory of Illyricum was governed by Vatinius, who came thence to Dyrrachium and occupied it in advance. He was a political adversary of Brutus, but could not injure him at all, for his soldiers, who disliked him and furthermore despised him by reason of a disease, went over to the other side.

[B.C. 43 (a. u. 711)]

Brutus, taking charge of these, led an expedition against Antonius, who was in Apollonia: the latter came out to meet him, whereupon Brutus won over his soldiers and confined him within the walls, whither he fled before him. After this Antonius was by betrayal taken alive, but no harm was done to him. [-22-] Close upon this success the victor acquired all of Macedonia and Epirus, and then despatched a letter to the senate, stating what had been accomplished, and placing himself, the provinces, and the soldiers at its disposal. The senators, who by chance already felt suspicious of Caesar, praised him strongly and bade him govern all that region. When, then, he had confirmed his leadership by the decree, he himself felt more encouraged and he found his subjects ready to support him unreservedly. For a time he communicated with Caesar, when the latter appeared to be hostile to Antony, urging him to resist his enemy and be reconciled with him (Brutus), and he was making preparations to sail to Italy because the senate summoned him. After Caesar, however, had matters thoroughly in hand in Rome, and proceeded openly to take vengeance on his father's slayers, Brutus remained where he was, deliberating how he should successfully ward off the other's attack when it occurred: and besides managing admirably the other districts as well as Macedonia, he calmed the minds of his legions when they had been thrown into a state of discontent by Antonius. [-23-] For the latter, although his conqueror had not even deprived him of a praetor's perquisites, did not enjoy keeping quiet in safety and honor, but connived at a revolt among the soldiers of Brutus. Being discovered at this work before he had done any great harm, he was stripped of his praetor's insignia, and delivered to be guarded without confinement that he might not cause an uprising. Yet not even then did he remain quiet, but concocted more schemes of rebellion than ever, so that some of the soldiers came to blows with one another and others started for Apollonia after Antonius himself, in the intention of rescuing him. This, however, they were unable to do: Brutus had learned in advance from some intercepted letters what was to be done and by putting him into an enclosed chair got him out of the way on the pretence that he was moving a sick man. The soldiers, not being able to find the object of their search, in fear of Brutus seized a point of high ground commanding the city. Brutus induced them to come to an understanding, and by executing a few of the most audacious and dismissing others from his service he set matters in such a light that the men arrested and killed those sent away, on the ground that they were most responsible for the sedition, and asked for the surrender of the quaestor and the lieutenants of Antonius. [-24-] Brutus did not give up any of the latter, but put them aboard boats with the avowed intention of drowning them, and so conveyed them to safety. Fearing, however, that when they should hear the next news of more terrifying transactions in Rome they might change their attitude, he delivered Antonius to a certain Gaius Clodius to guard, and left him at Apollonia. Meanwhile Brutus himself took the largest and strongest part of the army and retired into upper Macedonia, whence he later sailed to Asia, to the end that he might remove his men as far as possible from Italy and support them on the subject territory there. Among other allies whom he won over at this time was Deiotarus, although he was of a great age and had refused assistance to Cassius. While he was delaying here a plot was formed against him by Gellius Poplicola, and Mark Antony sent some men to attempt to rescue his brother. Clodius, accordingly, as he could not guard his prisoner safely, killed him, either on his own responsibility, or according to instructions from Brutus. For the story is that at first the latter made his safety of supreme importance, but later, learning that Decimus had perished, cared nothing more about it. Gellius was detected, but suffered no punishment. Brutus released him because he had always held him to be among his best friends and knew that his brother, Marcus Messala, was on very close terms with Cassius. The man had also attacked Cassius, but had suffered no evil in that case, either. The reason was that his mother Polla learned of the plot in advance, and being very fearful lest Cassius should be overtaken by his fate (for she was very fond of him) and lest her son should be detected, voluntarily informed Cassius of the plot herself beforehand, and received the preservation of her son as a reward. His easy escapes, however, did not improve him at all, and he deserted his benefactors to join Caesar and Antony. [-25-] As soon as Brutus learned of the attempt of Mark Antony and of the killing of his brother, he feared that some other insurrection might take place in Macedonia during his absence, and immediately hastened to Europe. On the way he took charge of the territory which had belonged to Sadalus (who died childless and left it to the Romans), and invaded the country of the Bessi, to see if he could at the same time recompense them for the trouble they were causing and surround himself with the name and reputation of imperator, which would enable him to fight more easily against Caesar and Antony. Both projects he accomplished, being chiefly aided by Rhascuporis, a certain prince. After going thence into Macedonia and making himself master of everything there, he withdrew again into Asia.