He was not gone far from the door when a slave, who belonged to some other person, attempted to get up to speak to him but finding it impossible, by reason of the crowd that was about him.
Continuing Julius Caesar Murdered,
our selection by Plutarch.
Previously in Julius Caesar Murdered.
Time: 44 BC
Place: Rome
He therefore offered a number of sacrifices and, as the diviners found no auspicious tokens in any of them, he sent Antony to dismiss the senate. In the meantime Decius Brutus, surnamed Albinus, came in. He was a person in whom Caesar placed such confidence that he had appointed him his second heir, yet he was engaged in the conspiracy with the other Brutus and Cassius. This man, fearing that if Caesar adjourned the senate to another day the affair might be discovered, laughed at the diviners and told Caesar he would be highly to blame if by such a slight he gave the senate an occasion of complaint against him. “For they were met,” he said, “at his summons and came prepared with one voice to honor him with the title of king in the provinces and to grant that he should wear the diadem both by sea and land everywhere out of Italy. But if anyone go and tell them, now they have taken their places, they must go home again and return when Calpurnia happens to have better dreams, what room will your enemies have to launch out against you? Or who will hear your friends when they attempt to show that this is not an open servitude on the one hand and tyranny on the other? If you are absolutely persuaded that this is an unlucky day, it is certainly better to go yourself and tell them you have strong reasons for putting off business till another time.” So saying he took Caesar by the hand and led him out.
He was not gone far from the door when a slave, who belonged to some other person, attempted to get up to speak to him but finding it impossible, by reason of the crowd that was about him, he made his way into the house and putting himself into the hands of Calpurnia desired her to keep him safe till Caesar’s return, because he had matters of great importance to communicate.
Artemidorus the Cnidian, who, by teaching the Greek eloquence, became acquainted with some of Brutus’ friends and had got intelligence of most of the transactions, approached Caesar with a paper explaining what he had to discover. Observing that he gave the papers, as fast as he received them, to his officers, he got up as close as possible and said: “Caesar, read this to yourself and quickly, for it contains matters of great consequence and of the last concern to you.” He took it and attempted several times to read it but was always prevented by one application or other. He therefore kept that paper and that only, in his hand, when he entered the house. Some say it was delivered to him by another man, Artemidorus being kept from approaching him all the way by the crowd.
These things might, indeed, fall out by chance; but as in the place where the senate was that day assembled and which proved the scene of that tragedy, there was a statue of Pompey and it was an edifice which Pompey had consecrated for an ornament to his theatre, nothing can be clearer than that some deity conducted the whole business and directed the execution of it to that very spot. Even Cassius himself, though inclined to the doctrines of Epicurus, turned his eye to the statue of Pompey and secretly invoked his aid, before the great attempt. The arduous occasion, it seems, overruled his former sentiments and laid them open to all the influence of enthusiasm. Antony, who was a faithful friend to Caesar and a man of great strength, was held in discourse without, by Brutus Albinus, who had contrived a long story to detain him.
When Caesar entered the house, the senate rose to do him honor. Some of Brutus’ accomplices came up behind his chair and others before it, pretending to intercede, along with Metillius Cimber, for the recall of his brother from exile. They continued their instances till he came to his seat. When he was seated he gave them a positive denial; and as they continued their importunities with an air of compulsion, he grew angry. Cimber, then, with both hands, pulled his gown off his neck, which was the signal for the attack. Casca gave him the first blow. It was a stroke upon the neck with his sword but the wound was not dangerous; for in the beginning of so tremendous an enterprise he was probably in some disorder. Caesar therefore turned upon him and laid hold of his sword. At the same time they both cried out, the one in Latin, “Villain! Casca! what dost thou mean?” and the other in Greek, to his brother, “Brother, help!”
After such a beginning, those who knew nothing of the conspiracy were seized with consternation and horror, insomuch that they durst neither fly nor assist, nor even utter a word. All the conspirators now drew their swords and surrounded him in such a manner that, whatever way he turned, he saw nothing but steel gleaming in his face and met nothing but wounds. Like some savage beast attacked by the hunters, he found every hand lifted against him, for they all agreed to have a share in the sacrifice and a taste of his blood. Therefore Brutus himself gave him a stroke in the groin. Some say he opposed the rest and continued struggling and crying out till he perceived the sword of Brutus; then he drew his robe over his face and yielded to his fate. Either by accident or pushed thither by the conspirators, he expired on the pedestal of Pompey’s statue and dyed it with his blood; so that Pompey seemed to preside over the work of vengeance, to tread his enemy under his feet and to enjoy his agonies. Those agonies were great, for he received no less than three-and-twenty wounds. And many of the conspirators wounded each other as they were aiming their blows at him.
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