Caesar, if he could, would bring back to life many who lie
dead. For the others, we all feared what they might do if the day had been
theirs. They not only threatened those who were in arms against them, but
those who sate quietly at home."
* * * * *
Cicero then said that he had heard a fear of assassination expressed by
Caesar. By whom, he asked, could such an attempt be made? Not by those
whom he had forgiven, for none were more attached to him. Not by his
comrades, for they could not be so mad as to conspire against the general
to whom they owed all that they possessed. Not by his enemies, for he had
no enemies. Those who had been his enemies were either dead through their
own obstinacy, or were alive through his generosity. It was possible,
however, he admitted, that there might be some such danger.
* * * * *
"Be you, therefore," he said, again speaking to Caesar,--"be you watchful,
and let us be diligent. Who is so careless of his own and the common
welfare as to be ignorant that on your preservation his own depends, and
that all our lives are bound up in yours? I, as in duty bound, think of
you by night and day; I ponder over the accidents of humanity, the
uncertainty of health, the frailty of our common nature, and I grieve to
think that the Commonwealth which ought to be immortal should hang on the
breath of a single man.
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