[26] The Senate rose with shrieks and confusion, and rushed
into the Forum. The crowd outside caught the words that Caesar was dead,
and scattered to their houses. Antony, guessing that those who had killed
Caesar would not spare himself, hurried off into concealment. The
murderers, bleeding some of them from wounds which they had given one
another in their eagerness, followed, crying that the tyrant was dead, and
that Rome was free; and the body of the great Caesar was left alone in the
house where a few weeks before Cicero told him that he was so necessary to
his country that every senator would die before harm should reach him!
[1] Apparently when Caesar touched there on his way to Egypt, after
Pharsalia. Cicero says (_Philippic_ ii. 11): "Quid? C.
Cassius ... qui etiam sine his clarissimis viris, hanc rem in Cilicia
ad ostium fluminis Cydni confecisset, si ille ad eam ripam quam
constituerat, non ad contrariam, navi appulisset."
[2] To be distinguished from Publius Ligarius, who had been put to death
before Thapsus.
[3] The Gauls were especially obnoxious, and epigrams were circulated to
insult them:--
"Gallos Caesar in triumphum ducit, idem in Curiam.
Galli braccas deposuerunt, latum clavum sumpserunt"
SUETONIUS, _Vita Jullii Caesaris_, 80.
Pages:
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639