selves that Cæsar had been only two days dead when they met. In fact, his body was not yet consumed. The conspirators did not attend the meeting, but Cicero did, and successfully exerted his eloquence to procure an act of general amnesty for the assassins, at the same time that he supported the measure which ratified all the laws and provisions of the late Dictator.

The truce between the contending parties implied by this twofold legislation was sealed by social civilities. Brutus supped with Antony that night, and Cassius with Lepidus, the Master of the Horse; and Cicero, having thus, as he fondly hoped, assisted in establishing a modus vivendi between the consul and the prætors, and paved the way for a restoration of that old order in which he so superstitiously believed, went out of town, and we find him on the 7th of April staying in the suburban villa of one Matius, an intimate friend of Cæsar, and a man, as will soon appear, of a perspicacity quite superior to that of the deeply engaged partisans by whom he was surrounded.

6

"I cannot understand it," Cicero writes impatiently to Atticus, who had remained in Rome. "If he,' says Matius, with all his genius failed, who will ever succeed?' The fact is, he talks as if all were lost; and so it may be, for aught I know, and Matius apparently would be glad of it! He declares that within three weeks there will be an insurrection in Gaul, vowing at the same time that he has not exchanged a word with a soul except Lepidus since the Ides of March. In fine, he prophesies that we have not yet seen the end. How admirable by contrast appears the conduct of Oppius, who was just as true a friend to Cæsar, but has not said a word which could offend one of the Boni!" He adds that he is anxious most

1 It appears, indeed, to have been during this session of the Senate that Brutus made his address of lofty self-justification to the populace.

of all for news of Brutus, and that Matius had told him how Cæsar once said of Brutus, in his epigrammatic way, "It makes a vast difference what that man wills, for, whatever it be, he wills it mightily."

How incessantly Matius and his guest talked about Cæsar (of what else, indeed, could they have talked!) appears from the fact that reference is also made to a remark of Cæsar concerning Cicero himself, which the latter takes pains to explain in a sort of postscript to his letter written later in the same day: “One allusion in my note you may possibly not have understood. The facts were these: Matius tells me that Cæsar said, at the time when I went to him on behalf of Sestius, and was sitting and waiting till my turn for an audience should come, How can I be such a fool as to expect even this facile gentleman to be my friend, when he has to wait my convenience in this fashion?"" Cicero evidently felt a sting in the word facilem, and we may doubt the wisdom of Matius in repeating the epithet, but the latter had the clairvoyance which enabled him to anticipate with startling precision the verdict of posterity on the melancholy affair of the assassination. He had been with Cæsar in Gaul, in the same year as his own and Cicero's friend, the lawyer Trebatius. He had remained neutral in the civil war, which he deeply deplored; but he had a warm personal attachment to the Dictator, and he came forward conspicuously on the occasion of certain memorial games which were celebrated in Cæsar's honor, during the month of May, at Rome.

The republicans, who were by this time smarting under the sense that they had been fooled by Antony's craft, were of course highly incensed with Matius; but Cicero liked the man, and he sought to qualify, by the suavest phrases at his command, the reproof which he undertook to give him. "You are so distinguished a person," he says, "that your

and that we are no more free because he is dead, I feel sometimes as if he were not the worst sort of master for a man of my age. Oh, yes, I blush for what I have written, but let it stand."

It began to appear that the consuls intended, and were prepared, to defend their position by force, and that, so far from taking serene possession of the government, the tyrannicides would have to fight for their cause and their lives. The thought of another civil war was hateful to Cicero. "There is no doubt about it in my own mind," he wrote while still at Pozzuoli. "It all looks like fighting. That act was done with the courage of men and the wisdom of babes.

But old age is making me bitter, and I rail at everything. My own life is over. Let the young look

to it."

Dolabella, who had wavered at the outset, and even won the exaggerated plaudits of Cicero for pulling down a temporary monument which had been erected to Cæsar in the Forum, had now come to a definite understanding with Antony. He had never paid back Tullia's dowry, and had no intention of

--

so doing. Yet, as though not unwilling to render a last service to one for whom he had always testified a certain airy regard, the quondam son-in-law, in his capacity of consul, procured for Cicero one of those "legations" which enabled a Roman gentleman to travel freely in foreign parts. Cicero kept this permit by him, and was very near making use of it. On the one hand, he felt, as he had said, shut out from the Senate at least until there should be a change of consuls - by the sinister turn which events were taking; on the other, he had a yearning to see the boy at Athens. Young Cicero had lately gladdened his father's heart by writing in a more manly strain than formerly, and earnestly promising an amended life; but his finances were in admired disorder, and could be properly straightened, Cicero thought, only by his own personal influence and authority exercised upon the spot. Moreover, we know from a letter of Decimus to M. Brutus and Cassius, dated in April, at Rome, and intended to put those two on their guard against the duplicity of Antony, that there was a question just then among the republican leaders of the propriety of their all retiring into voluntary exile. After describing an interview with Hirtius, one of the consuls designate, who had been very chary of his pledges for the future, "Thus driven into a corner," says Decimus Brutus, "I thought I might as well request free embassies for myself and all the rest of us, so that at least there should be an honorable way open to us of getting out of the country. He said he would make the demand, but I hardly think he will,

men are so spiteful, and we so unpopular. And even if we got our request, I suspect we should presently be declared enemies, and forbidden fire and water" (that is, outlawed). "If you want my opinion, however, I should say we would better yield to the pressure of circumstances, get out of Italy, and take up

our abode in Rhodes or elsewhere. If the prospect improves, we will return to Rome. If no change takes place, we will live in exile. If worse comes to worst, we can still apply the last remedy."

Hirtius had hinted to Decimus, during this gloomy interview, that Antony would oppose the taking possession by the three leaders of the governorships to which Cæsar had appointed them. A rather insulting proposal was made to Brutus and Cassius to accept in lieu of theirs the charge of the grain supply; and here comes in a letter of Cicero's, which flashes for one instant a circle of intense illumination on a curious and most interesting scene. The place is his own villa at Antium; the date, June 10th.

"I came here yesterday," he writes, "to the joy of Brutus. We had a great gathering. Servilia came, and Portia, and Tertulla. Favonius was also present. The question of our future course was introduced, and I, after thinking it over on the way to Antium, undertook to propose that the grain commission should be accepted." (Servilia was wild to have Brutus thus disposed of for the moment, one can imagine for what conflicting reasons.) "I said that if any harm befell him (Brutus) "it would be the end of everything. I looked upon him as the safeguard of the very republic. At this point of my remarks Cassius entered, and I repeated what I had said before. With blazing eyes, and, as one may say, breathing slaughter, Cassius vowed that to Sicily he would not go. 'Do you ask me,' said he, to accept as a favor what was intended for an affront? What will

1 Decimus was governor of north Italy.

2 Servilia was Brutus's mother and the halfsister of Cato. She was older than Cæsar, but had been his first love, his acknowledged mistress forty years before, and all her life long the object of his most flattering attentions. Hence the current story (barely credible, however) that Cæsar had used no figure of speech

you do, then?' I inquired. He said he should go to Achaia" (which was on the way to his province). "And you?' I asked, turning to Brutus. 'I will go to Rome, if you think best.' 'I? Not at all! It would not be safe.' 'But if it were, would wish me to go?' you Oh, as to that,' I cried, 'I could wish that you might continue to act as prætor, and not go to your province at all; but I'll not take the responsibility of advising you to trust yourself in the city.' I then stated the reasons, which will readily occur to you, why I thought the danger would be great. After this there was a good deal of fault-finding, - Cassius being most emphatic, and they said that precious opportunities had been lost, and were very hard upon Decimus. I could not but agree; still, I advised letting bygones be bygones. Then when I began to offer a few suggestions,nothing novel, mere commonplaces, — as that the Senate should be convened, the government seized, the zeal of the people strenuously fired and fostered, before I had even touched upon the principal point, the lady of whom you are so fond exclaimed, Well, that I have never heard any one say!' and I desisted.

8

"Cassius will probably go to his province. Servilia has even undertaken that the decree about the grain supply shall be rescinded by the Senate; and our dear Brutus, quite cast down by all this futile talk, remarked that he hoped it would be so. The understanding now is that games are to be celebrated in his name (as prætor), but that he will not be present. I think he would like to go to Asia direct from Antium. Under these circumstances, I am more when he called Brutus "my child." Portia was Brutus's wife and Cato's daughter. Tertulla was Brutus's sister and the wife of Cassius. Favonius was that solemn and stolid republican whom we have heard of before as "Cato's ape."

3 Apparently Servilia.

than ever convinced that the best thing for me will be to fly hence to some spot where' rumor of the deeds and fame of the sons of Pelops' will never reach me more."

But fate had ordained that the orb of Cicero's glory, so far from dropping quietly below the waves of the Ægean, should go down, over the shores he loved, in a last blaze of stormy splendor. In the account just quoted of the republican gathering at Antium, no mention whatever is made of the most important person present. A few days later, however, Cicero recurs to the subject, enters into fuller details concerning the resolutions adopted, and then adds: “Octavian struck me as clever and high-spirited, and his disposition toward our heroes all that could be desired. We must, however, remember his age, his name, his heritage and education, and be cautious how far we trust him. His stepfather, whom I saw at Astura, was very non-committal. Still I think he should be made much of, if only for the sake of detaching him from Antony."

No one, apparently, of that excited party at the seaside villa perceived the man of the new era, or suspected the star of empire on the forehead of the handsome youth, who had been waiting at Apollonia in Epirus to join the Parthian expedition of his great-uncle, and who, when he heard of the tragedy at Rome, hurried thither to claim the magnificent inheritance which had already been appropriated by Antony. Not

even Cicero, for all his acuteness, divined the ruthless young hand which was to sign his own death-warrant within so short a time. Then, and for months afterward, Octavian treated the venerable statesman with great deference, and listened to his abundant counsels with becoming grace.

1 More accurately step-grandfather. Philippus, whom the reader will remember as Cicero's neighbor at Pozzuoli, and as having shared the entertainment of Cæsar on the memorable

Meanwhile the summer weeks were slipping away, and Cicero moved back and forward, much as usual, between Arpinum and the shore, and always believed himself to be going to Greece, but still did not set sail. The studious habits of a long life stood by him now, and gave him many a quiet hour, during which all his anxieties were forgotten. Some of his most exquisite writing, some of that whereby he still holds the heart and assuages the pain of the world, was done during this final period of suspense. He wrote concerning Glory and concerning Fate, both of which essays have perished. He noted down in the Anecdota many personal reminiscences of the great men of his time, which it is almost too exasperating to have lost. He completed and threw into its ultimate form that noble manual of public morals, the De Officiis. He composed and addressed to Atticus those two beautiful treatises which "Time, the thief," has condescended to spare, the De Senectute and the De Amicitia, the one a gem of sane and lofty resignation, the other a magnificent tribute to the power of human love. Listen yet once more to the ringing phrases in which a man of incomparably rich experience, close upon his grand climacteric, but with spirit all unbroken and faculties undimmed, sums up his affair with life: "The fourth and last reason why old age is popularly supposed to be a sad and anxious season lies in the nearness of death, which of a truth cannot be very far distant from the old. But alas for him who, in the course of a long life, has not learned to despise death! For if the soul is to be extinguished, we need not take it into account at all; but if death do but lead us to the beginning of an eternal future, how greatly is it to be desired! . . . And the old man has at least this ad

occasion of his last visit to these parts, was the second husband of Cæsar's sister Julia, whose grandson by her first marriage with Atius Balbus was Caius Julius Cæsar Octavianus Augustus.