Sc. 2.
Antonius, according to Roman fashion, made a funeral speech over the
body of Caesar (Life of Antonius, c. 14; of Brutus, c. 20). Dion
Cassius (44. c. 36-49) has put a long speech in the mouth of Antonius,
mere empty declamation. Appianus (_Civil Wars_, ii. 144-6) gives one
which is well enough suited to the character of Antonius. (_Oratorum
Romanorum Fragmenta_, ed. Mayer, p. 455.) It is probable that the
speech of Antonius was preserved, and was used as materials by the
historians.]
[Footnote 617: This man, who unluckily bore the name of Cinna, was C.
Helvius Cinna, a tribune of the plebs, a poet, and a friend of Caesar.
(Dion Cassius, 44. c. 50, and the notes of Reimarus.) The conspirator
Cinna was the son of L. Cornelius Cinna, who was a partisan of Marius,
and was murdered in his fourth consulship (Life of Pompeius, c. 5).
Caesar's wife Cornelia, the mother of his only child Julia, was the
sister of the conspirator Cinna, as Plutarch names him. But probably
he was not one of the conspirators, though he approved of the deed
after it was done. (Drumann, _Geschichte Roms_, Cinnae, p. 591, notes,
and also as to Helvius Cinna.)]
[Footnote 618: And also in the Life of Antonius.]
[Footnote 619: Suetonius (_Caesar_, c. 89) observes that scarce any of
his assasins survived him three years; and they all came to a violent
end.]
[Footnote 620: This town was on the Asiatic side of the Hellespont.
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