He had a protection
in the people. If the optimates killed him without preparation, they knew
that they would be immediately massacred. But an atmosphere of suspicion
and uncertainty had been successfully generated, of which they determined
to take immediate advantage. There were no troops in the city. Lepidus,
Caesar's master of the horse, who had been appointed governor of Gaul, was
outside the gates, with a few cohorts; but Lepidus was a person of feeble
character, and they trusted to be able to deal with him.
Sixty senators, in all, were parties to the immediate conspiracy. Of these
nine-tenths were members of the old faction whom Caesar had pardoned, and
who, of all his acts, resented most that he had been able to pardon them.
They were the men who had stayed at home, like Cicero, from the fields of
Thapsus and Munda, and had pretended penitence and submission that they
might take an easier road to rid themselves of their enemy. Their motives
were the ambition of their order and personal hatred of Caesar; but they
persuaded themselves that they were animated by patriotism, and as, in
their hands, the Republic had been a mockery of liberty, so they aimed at
restoring it by a mock tyrannicide. Their oaths and their professions were
nothing to them. If they were entitled to kill Caesar, they were entitled
equally to deceive him.
Pages:
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629