728, &c. The reflections of Dion
Cassius (44. c. 1, 2) on the death of Caesar are worth reading. He
could not see that any public good was accomplished by this murder;
nor can anybody else.]
[Footnote 613: Cicero was among them. He saw, as he says himself (_Ad
Attic._ xiv. 10), the tyrant fall, and he rejoiced. In his letters he
speaks with exultation of the murder, and commends the murderers. But
he was not let into the secret. They were afraid to trust him. If he
had been in the conspiracy, he says (_Philipp._ ii. 14) he would have
made clean work; he would have assassinated all the enemies of
liberty; in other words, all the chief men of Caesar's party. He had
abjectly humbled himself before Caesar, who treated him with kind
respect. Like all genuine cowards he was cruel when he had power.]
[Footnote 614: M. AEmilius Lepidus, son of M. Lepidus, consul B.C. 78.
He afterwards formed one of the Triumviri with M. Antonius and
Octavianus Caesar. This was the Lepidus with whom Caesar supped the day
before he was murdered. He was a feeble man, though something of a
soldier. Shakspere has painted him in a few words:
_Antony_. This is a slight unmeritable man,
Meet to be sent on errands.
_Julius Caesar_, Act iv. Sc. 1.
There is more of him in the Lives of Brutus and Antonius.]
[Footnote 615: I do not know who this Caius Octavius is. There is
probably some mistake in the name.
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