None such must be heard of again. But what is done cannot be
undone." [2]
Admirable advice, were it as easy to act on good counsel as to give it.
The murder of such a man as Caesar was not to be so easily smoothed over.
But the delusive vision seemed for a moment to please. The Senate passed
an act of oblivion. The agitation in the army was quieted when the men
heard that their lands were secure. But there were two other questions
which required an answer, and an immediate one. Caesar's body, after
remaining till evening on the floor of the senate-house, had been carried
home in the dusk in a litter by three of his servants, and was now lying
in his palace. If it was not to be thrown into the Tiber, what was to be
done with it? Caesar had left a will, which was safe with his other papers
in the hands of Antony. Was the will to be read and recognized? Though
Cicero had advised in the Senate that the discussion whether Caesar had
deserved death should not be raised, yet it was plain to him and to every
one that, unless Caesar was held guilty of conspiring against the
Constitution, the murder was and would be regarded as a most execrable
crime. He dreaded the effect of a public funeral. He feared that the will
might contain provisions which would rouse the passions of the people.
Though Caesar was not for various reasons to be pronounced a tyrant,
Cicero advised that he should be buried privately, as if his name was
under a cloud, and that his property should be escheated to the nation.
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