One Cinna,[617] however, a friend of Caesar,
happened, as it is said, to have had a strange dream the night
before; for he dreamed that he was invited by Caesar to sup with him,
and when he excused himself, he was dragged along by Caesar by the
hand, against his will and making resistance the while. Now, when he
heard that the body of Caesar was burning in the Forum, he got up and
went there out of respect, though he was somewhat alarmed at his dream
and had a fever on him. One of the multitude who saw Cinna told his
name to another who was inquiring of him, and he again told it to a
third, and immediately it spread through the crowd that this man was
one of those who had killed Caesar; and indeed there was one of the
conspirators who was named Cinna: and taking this man to be him the
people forthwith rushed upon him and tore him in pieces on the spot.
It was principally through alarm at this that the partisans of Brutus
and Cassius after a few days left the city. But what they did and
suffered before they died is told in the Life of Brutus.[618] LXIX. At
the time of his death Caesar was full fifty-six years old, having
survived Pompeius not much more than four years, and of the power and
dominion which all through his life he pursued at so great risk and
barely got at last, having reaped the fruit in name only, and with the
glory of it the odium of the citizens. Yet his great daemon,[619] which
accompanied him through life, followed him even when he was dead, the
avenger of his murder, through every land and sea hunting and tracking
out his murderers till not one of them was left, and pursuing even
those who in any way whatever had either put their hand to the deed or
been participators in the plot.
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