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$Title{Plutarch's Lives
Part IV}
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$Author{Plutarch}
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$Subject{caesar
brutus
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$Date{c75}
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Title:       Plutarch's Lives
Book:        Caesar
Author:      Plutarch
Date:        c75
Translation: Dryden, Arthur Hugh Clough

Part IV

     Caesar, upon his return to Rome, did not omit to pronounce before the
people a magnificent account of his victory, telling them that he had subdued
a country which would supply the public every year with two hundred thousand
attic bushels of corn, and three million pounds weight of oil. He then led
three triumphs for Egypt, Pontus, and Africa, the last for the victory over,
not Scipio, but king Juba, as it was professed, whose little son was then
carried in the triumph, the happiest captive that ever was, who of a barbarian
Numidian, came by this means to obtain a place among the most learned
historians of Greece. After the triumphs, he distributed rewards to his
soldiers, and treated the people with feasting and shows. He entertained the
whole people together at one feast, where twenty-two thousand dining couches
were laid out; and he made a display of gladiators, and of battles by sea, in
honor, as he said, of his daughter Julia, though she had been long since dead.
When these shows were over, an account was taken of the people, who, from
three hundred and twenty thousand, were now reduced to one hundred and fifty
thousand. So great a waste had the civil war made in Rome alone, not to
mention what the other parts of Italy and the provinces suffered.

     He was now chosen a fourth time consul, and went into Spain against
Pompey's sons. They were but young, yet had gathered together a very numerous
army, and showed they had courage and conduct to command it, so that Caesar
was in extreme danger. The great battle was near the town of Munda, in which
Caesar seeing his men hard pressed, and making but a weak resistance, ran
through the ranks among the soldiers, and crying out, asked them whether they
were not ashamed to deliver him into the hands of boys? At last, with great
difficulty, and the best efforts he could make, he forced back the enemy,
killing thirty thousand of them, though with the loss of one thousand of his
best men. When he came back from the fight, he told his friends that he had
often fought for victory, but this was the first time that he had ever fought
for life. This battle was won on the feast of Bacchus, the very day in which
Pompey, four years before, had set out for the war. The younger of Pompey's,
sons escaped; but Didius, some days after the fight, brought the head of the
elder to Caesar. This was the last war he was engaged in. The triumph which he
celebrated for this victory, displeased the Romans beyond any thing. For he
had not defeated foreign generals, or barbarian kings, but had destroyed the
children and family of one of the greatest men of Rome, though unfortunate;
and it did not look well to lead a procession in celebration of the calamities
of his country, and to rejoice in those things for which no other apology
could be made either to gods or men, than their being absolutely necessary.
Besides that, hitherto he had never sent letters or messengers to announce any
victory over his fellow-citizens, but had seemed rather to be ashamed of the
action, than to expect honor from it.

     Nevertheless his countrymen, conceding all to his fortune, and accepting
the bit, in the hope that the government of a single person would give them
time to breathe after so many civil wars and calamities, made him dictator for
life. This was indeed a tyranny avowed, since his power now was not only
absolute, but perpetual too. Cicero made the first proposals to the senate for
conferring honors upon him, which might in some sort be said not to exceed the
limits of ordinary human moderation. But others, striving which should deserve
most, carried them so excessively high, that they made Caesar odious to the
most indifferent and moderate sort of men, by the pretension and the
extravagance of the titles which they decreed him. His enemies, too, are
thought to have had some share in this, as well as his flatterers. It gave
them advantage against him, and would be their justification for any attempt
they should make upon him; for since the civil wars were ended, he had nothing
else that he could be charged with. And they had good reason to decree a
temple to Clemency, in token of their thanks for the mild use he made of his
victory. For he not only pardoned many of those who fought against him, but,
further, to some gave honors and offices; as particularly to Brutus and
Cassius, who both of them were praetors. Pompey's images that were thrown
down, he set up again, upon which Cicero also said that by raising Pompey's
statues he had fixed his own. When his friends advised him to have a guard,
and several offered their service, he would not hear of it; but said it was
better to suffer death once, than always to live in fear of it. He looked upon
the affections of the people to be the best and surest guard, and entertained
them again with public feasting, and general distributions of corn; and to
gratify his army, he sent out colonies to several places, of which the most
remarkable were Carthage and Corinth; which as before they had been ruined at
the same time, so now were restored and repeopled together.

     As for the men of high rank, he promised to some of them future
consulships and praetorships, some he consoled with other offices and honors,
and to all held out hopes of favor by the solicitude he showed to rule with
the general goodwill; insomuch that upon the death of Maximus one day before
his consulship was ended, he made Caninius Revilius consul for that day. And
when many went to pay the usual compliments and attentions to the new consul,
"Let us make haste," said Cicero, "lest the man be gone out of his office
before we come."

     Caesar was born to do great things, and had a passion after honor, and
the many noble exploits he had done did not now serve as an inducement to him
to sit still and reap the fruit of his past labors, but were incentives and
encouragements to go on, and raised in him ideas of still greater actions, and
a desire of new glory, as if the present were all spent. It was in fact a sort
of emulous struggle with himself, as it had been with another, how he might
outdo his past actions by his future. In pursuit of these thoughts, he
resolved to make war upon the Parthians, and when he had subdued them, to pass
through Hyrcania; thence to march along by the Caspian Sea to Mount Caucasus,
and so on about Pontus, till he came into Scythia; then to overrun all the
countries bordering upon Germany, and Germany itself; and so to return through
Gaul into Italy, after completing the whole circle of his intended empire, and
bounding it on every side by the ocean. While preparations were making for
this expedition, he proposed to dig through the isthmus on which Corinth
stands; and appointed Anienus to superintend the work. He had also a design of
diverting the Tiber, and carrying it by a deep channel directly from Rome to
Circeii, and so into the sea near Tarracina, that there might be a safe and
easy passage for all merchants who traded to Rome. Besides this, he intended
to drain all the marshes by Pomentium and Setia, and gain ground enough from
the water to employ many thousands of men in tillage. He proposed further to
make great mounds on the shore nearest Rome, to hinder the sea from breaking
in upon the land, to clear the coast at Ostia of all the hidden rocks and
shoals that made it unsafe for shipping, and to form ports and harbors fit to
receive the large number of vessels that would frequently them.

     These things were designed without being carried into effect; but his
reformation of the calendar, in order to rectify the irregularity of time, was
not only projected with great scientific ingenuity, but was brought to its
completion, and proved of very great use. For it was not only in ancient times
that the Romans had wanted a certain rule to make the revolutions of their
months fall in with the course of the year, so that their festivals and solemn
days for sacrifice were removed by little and little, till at last they came
to be kept at seasons quite the contrary to what was at first intended, but
even at this time the people had no way of computing the solar year; only the
priests could say the time, and they, at their pleasure, without giving any
notice, slipped in the intercalary month, which they called Mercedonius. Numa
was the first who put in this month, but his expedient was but a poor one and
quite inadequate to correct all the errors that arose in the returns of the
annual cycles, as we have shown in his Life. Caesar called in the best
philosophers and mathematicians of his time to settle the point, and out of
the systems he had before him, formed a new and more exact method of
correcting the calendar, which the Romans use to this day, and seem to succeed
better than any nation in avoiding the errors occasioned by the inequality of
the cycles. Yet even this gave offence to those who looked with an evil eye on
his position, and felt oppressed by his power. Cicero, the orator, when some
one in his company chanced to say, the next morning Lyra would rise, replied,
"Yes, in accordance with the edict," as if even this were a matter of
compulsion.

     But that which brought upon him the most apparent and mortal hatred, was
his desire of being king; which gave the common people the first occasion to
quarrel with him, and proved the most specious pretence to those who had been
his secret enemies all along. Those, who would have procured him that title,
gave it out, that it was foretold in the Sybils' books that the Romans should
conquer the Parthians when they fought against them under the conduct of a
king, but not before. And one day, as Caesar was coming down from Alba to
Rome, some were so bold as to salute him by the name of king; but he finding
the people disrelish it, seemed to resent it himself, and said his name was
Caesar, not king. Upon this, there was a general silence, and he passed on
looking not very well pleased or contended. Another time, when the senate had
conferred on him some extravagant honors, he chanced to receive the message as
he was sitting on the rostra, where, though the consuls and praetors
themselves waited on him, attended by the whole body of the senate, he did not
rise, but behaved himself to them as if they had been private men, and told
them his honors wanted rather to be retrenched than increased. This treatment
offended not only the senate, but the commonalty, too, as if they thought the
affront upon the senate equally reflected upon the whole republic; so that all
who could decently leave him went off, looking much discomposed. Caesar,
perceiving the false step he had made, immediately retired home; and laying
his throat bare, told his friends that he was ready to offer this to any one
who would give the stroke. But afterwards he made the malady from which he
suffered, the excuse for his sitting, saying that those who are attacked by
it, lose their presence of mind, if they talk much standing; that they
presently grow giddy, fall into convulsions, and quite lose their reason. But
this was not the reality, for he would willingly have stood up to the senate,
had not Cornelius Balbus, one of his friends, or rather flatterers, hindered
him. "Will you not remember," said he, "you are Caesar, and claim the honor
which is due to your merit?"

     He gave a fresh occasion of resentment by his affront to the tribunes.
The Lupercalia were then celebrated, a feast at the first institution
belonging, as some writers say, to the shepherds, and having some connection
with the Arcadian Lycaea. Many young noblemen and magistrates run up and down
the city with their upper garments off, striking all they meet with thongs of
hide, by way of sport; and many women, even of the highest rank, place
themselves in the way, and hold out their hands to the lash, as boys in a
school do to the master, out of a belief that it procures an easy labor to
those who are with child, and makes those conceive who are barren. Caesar,
dressed in a triumphal robe, seated himself in a golden chair at the rostra,
to view this ceremony. Antony, as consul, was one of those who ran this
course, and when he came into the forum, and the people made way for him, he
went up and reached to Caesar a diadem wreathed with laurel. Upon this, there
was a shout, but only a slight one, made by the few who were planted there for
that purpose; but when Caesar refused it, there was universal applause. Upon
the second offer, very few, and upon the second refusal, all again applauded.
Caesar finding it would not take, rose up, and ordered the crown to be carried
into the capitol. Caesar's statues were afterwards found with royal diadems on
their heads. Flavius and Marullus, two tribunes of the people, went presently
and pulled them off, and having apprehended those who first saluted Caesar as
king, committed them to prison. The people followed them with acclamations and
called them by the name of Brutus, because Brutus was the first who ended the
succession of kings, and transferred the power which before was lodged in one
man into the hands of the senate and people. Caesar so far resented this, that
he displaced Marullus and Flavius; and in urging his charges against them, at
the same time ridiculed the people, by himself giving the men more than once
the names of Bruti, and Cumaei. ^15

[Footnote 15: Brutus, in Latin, means heavy, stupid; and the Cumaeans were for
one reason or other proverbial for dullness.]

     This made the multitude turn their thoughts to Marcus Brutus, who, by his
father's side, was thought to be descended from that first Brutus, and by his
mother's side from the Servilii, another noble family, being besides nephew
and son-in-law to Cato. But the honors and favors he had received from Caesar,
took off the edge from the desires he might himself have felt for overthrowing
the new monarchy. For he had not only been pardoned himself after Pompey's
defeat at Pharsalia, and had procured the same grace for many of his friends,
but was one in whom Caesar had a particular confidence. He had at that time
the most honorable praetorship of the year, and was named for the consulship
four years after, being preferred before Cassius, his competitor. Upon the
question as to the choice, Caesar, it is related, said that Cassius had the
fairer pretensions, but that he could not pass by Brutus. Nor would he
afterwards listen to some who spoke against Brutus, when the conspiracy
against him was already afoot, but laying his hand on his body, said to the
informers, "Brutus will wait for this skin of mine," intimating that he was
worthy to bear rule on account of his virtue, but would not be base and
ungrateful to gain it. Those who desired a change, and looked on him as the
only, or at least the most proper, person to effect it, did not venture to
speak with him; but in the night-time laid papers about his chair of state,
where he used to sit and determine causes, with such sentences in them as,
"You are asleep, Brutus," "You are no longer Brutus." Cassius, when he
perceived his ambition a little raised upon this, was more instant than before
to work him yet further, having himself a private grudge against Caesar, for
some reasons that we have mentioned in the Life of Brutus. Nor was Caesar
without suspicions of him, and said once to his friends, "What do you think
Cassius is aiming at? I don't like him, he looks so pale." And when it was
told him that Antony and Dolabella were in a plot against him, he said he did
not fear such fat, luxurious men, but rather the pale, lean fellows, meaning
Cassius and Brutus.

     Fate, however, is to all appearances more unavoidable than unexpected.
For many strange prodigies and apparitions are said to have been observed
shortly before the event. As to the lights in the heavens, the noises heard in
the night, and the wild birds which perched in the forum, these are not
perhaps worth taking notice of in so great a case as this. Strabo, the
philosopher, tells us that a number of men were seen, looking as if they were
heated through with fire, contending with each other; that a quantity of flame
issued from the hand of a soldier's servant, so that they who saw it thought
he must burnt, but that after all he had no hurt. As Caesar was sacrificing,
the victim's heart was missing, a very bad omen, because no living creature
can subsist without a heart. One finds it also related by many, that a
soothsayer bade him prepare for some great danger on the ides of March. When
the day was come, Caesar, as he went to the senate, met this soothsayer, and
said to him by way of raillery, "The ides of March are come;" who answered him
calmly. "Yes, they are come, but they are not past." The day before this
assassination, he supped with Marcus Lepidus; and as he was signing some
letters, according to his custom, as he reclined at table, there arose a
question what sort of death was the best. At which he immediately, before any
one could speak, said, "A sudden one."

     After this, as he was in bed with his wife, all the doors and windows of
the house flew open together; he was startled at the noise, and the light
which broke into the room, and sat up in hie bed, where by the moonshine he
perceived Calpurnia fast asleep, but heard her utter in her dream some
indistinct words and inarticulate groans. She fancied at that time she was
weeping over Caesar, and holding him butchered in her arms. Others say this
was not her dream, but that she dreamed that a pinnacle which the senate, as
Livy relates, had ordered to be raised on Caesar's house by way of ornament
and grandeur, was tumbling down, which was the occasion of her tears and
ejaculations. When it was day, she begged of Caesar, if it were possible, not
to stir out, but to adjourn the senate to another time; and if he slighted her
dreams, that he would be pleased to consult his fate by sacrifices, and other
kinds of divination. Nor was he himself without some suspicion and fears; for
he never before discovered any womanish superstition in Calpurnia, whom he now
saw in such great alarm. Upon the report which the priests made to him, that
they had killed several sacrifices, and still found them inauspicious, he
resolved to sent Antony to dismiss the senate.

     In this juncture, Decimus Brutus, surnamed Albinus, one whom Caesar had
such confidence in that he made him his second heir, who nevertheless was
engaged in the conspiracy with the other Brutus and Cassius, fearing lest if
Caesar should put off the senate to another day, the business might get wind,
spoke scoffingly and in mockery of the diviners, and blamed Caesar for giving
the senate so fair an occasion of saying he had put a slight upon them, for
that they were met upon his summons, and were ready to vote unanimously, that
he should be declared king of all the provinces out of Italy, and might wear a
diadem in any other place but Italy, by sea or land. If any one should be sent
to tell them they might break up for the present, and meet again when
Calpurnia should chance to have better dreams, what would his enemies say? Or
who would with any patience hear his friends, if they should presume to defend
his government as not arbitrary and tyrannical? But if he was possessed so far
as to think this day unfortunate, yet it were more decent to go himself to the
senate, and to adjourn it in his own person. Brutus, as he spoke these words,
took Caesar by the hand, and conducted him forth. He was not gone far from the
door, when a servant of some other person's made towards him, but not being
able to come up to him, on account of the crowd of those who pressed about
him, he made his way into the house, and committed himself to Calpurnia,
begging of her to secure him till Caesar returned, because he had matters of
great importance to communicate to him.

     Artemidorus, a Cnidian, a teacher of Greek logic, and by that means so
far acquainted with Brutus and his friends as to have got into the secret,
brought Caesar in a small written memorial, the heads of what he had to
depose. He had observed that Caesar, as he received any papers, presently gave
them to the servants who attended on him; and therefore came as near to him as
he could, and said, "Read this, Caesar, alone, and quickly, for it contains
matter of great importance which nearly concerns you." Caesar received it, and
tried several times to read it, but was still hindered by the crowd of those
who came to speak to him. However, he kept it in his hand by itself till he
came into the senate. Some say it was another who gave Caesar this note, and
that Artemidorus could not get to him, being all along kept off by the crowd.

     All these things might happen by chance. But the place which was destined
for the scene of this murder, in which the senate met that day, was the same
in which Pompey's statue stood and was one of the edifices which Pompey had
raised and dedicated with his theatre to the use of the public, plainly
showing that there was something of a supernatural influence which guided the
action, and ordered it to that particular place. Cassius, just before the act,
is said to have looked towards Pompey's statue, and silently implored his
assistance, though he had been inclined to the doctrines of Epicurus. But this
occasion and the instant danger, carried him away out of all his reasonings,
and filled him for the time with a sort of inspiration. As for Antony, who was
firm to Caesar, and a strong man, Brutus Albinus kept him outside the house,
and delayed him with a long conversation contrived on purpose. When Caesar
entered, the senate stood up to show their respect to him, and of Brutus'
confederates, some came about his chair and stood behind it, others met him,
pretending to add their petitions to those of Tillius Cimber, in behalf of his
brother, who was in exile; and they followed him with their joint
supplications till he came to his seat. When he was sat down, he refused to
comply with their requests, and upon their urging him further, began to
reproach them severally for their importunities, when Tillius, laying hold of
his robe with both his hands, pulled it down from his neck, which was the
signal for the assault. Casca gave him the first cut, in the neck, which was
not mortal nor dangerous, as coming from one who at the beginning of such a
bold action was probably very much disturbed. Caesar immediately turned about,
and laid his hand upon the dagger and kept hold of it. And both of them at the
same time cried out, he that received the blow, in Latin, "Vile Casca, what
does this mean?" and he that gave it, in Greek, to his brother, "Brother,
help!" Upon this first onset, those who were not privy to the design were
astonished, and their horror and amazement at what they saw were so great,
that they durst not fly nor assist Caesar, nor so much as speak a word. But
those who came prepared for the business inclosed him on every side, with
their naked daggers in their hands. Which way soever he turned, he met with
blows, and saw their swords levelled at his face and eyes, and was
encompassed, like a wild beast in the toils, on every side. For it had been
agreed they should each of them make a thrust at him, and flesh themselves
with his blood; for which reason Brutus also gave him one stab in the groin.
Some say that he fought and resisted all the rest, shifting his body to avoid
the blows, and calling out for help, but that when he saw Brutus' sword drawn,
he covered his face with his robe and submitted, letting himself fall, whether
it were by chance, or that he was pushed in that direction by his murderers,
at the foot of the pedestal on which Pompey's statue stood, and which was thus
wetted with his blood. So that Pompey himself seemed to have presided, as it
were, over the revenge done upon his adversary, who lay here at his feet, and
breathed out his soul through his multitude of wounds, for they say he
received three and twenty. And the conspirators themselves were many of them
wounded by each other, whilst they all levelled their blows at the same
person.

     When Caesar was dispatched, Brutus stood forth to give a reason for what
they had done, but the senate would not hear him, but flew out of doors in all
haste, and filled the people with so much alarm and distraction that some shut
up their houses, others left their counters and shops. All ran one way or the
other, some to the place to see the sad spectacle, others back again after
they had seen it. Antony and Lepidus, Caesar's most faithful friends, got off
privately, and hid themselves in some friends' houses. Brutus and his
followers, being yet hot from the deed, marched in a body from the senate -
house to the capitol with their drawn swords, not like persons who thought of
escaping, but with an air of confidence and assurance, and as they went along,
called to the people to resume their liberty, and invited the company of any
more distinguished people whom they met. And some of these joined the
procession and went up along with them, as if they also had been of the
conspiracy, and could claim a share in the honor of what had been done. As,
for example, Caius Octavius and Lentulus Spinther, who suffered afterwards for
their vanity, being taken off by Antony and the young Caesar, and lost the
honor they desired, as well as their lives, which it cost them, since no one
believed they had any share in the action. For neither did those who punished
them profess to revenge the fact, but the ill-will. The day after, Brutus with
the rest came down from the capitol, and made a speech to the people, who
listened without expressing either any pleasure or resentment, but showed by
their silence that they pitied Caesar, and respected Brutus. The senate passed
acts of oblivion for what was past, and took measures to reconcile all
parties. They ordered that Caesar should be worshipped as a divinity, and
nothing, even of the slightest consequence, should be revoked, which he had
enacted during his government. At the same time they gave Brutus and his
followers the command of provinces, and other considerable posts. So that all
people now thought things were well settled, and brought to the happiest
adjustment.

     But when Caesar's will was opened, and it was found that he had left a
considerable legacy to each one of the Roman citizens, and when his body was
seen carried through the market-place all mangled with wounds, the multitude
could no longer contain themselves within the bounds of tranquillity and
order, but heaped together a pile of benches, bars, and tables, which they
placed the corpse on, and setting fire to it, burnt it on them. Then they took
brands from the pile, and ran some to fire the houses of the conspirators,
others up and down the city, to find out the men and tear them to pieces, but
met, however, with none of them, they having taken effectual care to secure
themselves.

     One Cinna, a friend of Caesar's, chanced the night before to have an odd
dream. He fancied that Caesar invited him to supper, and that upon his refusal
to go with him, Caesar took him by the hand and forced him, though he hung
back. Upon hearing the report that Caesar's body was burning in the
market-place, he got up and went thither, out of respect to his memory, though
his dream gave him some ill apprehensions, and though he was suffering from a
fever. One of the crowd who saw him there, asked another who that was, and
having learned his name, told it to his next neighbor. It presently passed for
a certainty that he was one of Caesar's murderers, as, indeed, there was
another Cinna, a conspirator, and they, taking this to be the man, immediately
seized him, and tore him limb from limb upon the spot.

     Brutus and Cassius, frightened at this, within a few days retired out of
the city. What they afterwards did and suffered, and how they died, is written
in the Life of Brutus. Caesar died in his fifty-sixth year, not having
survived Pompey above four years. That empire and power which he had pursued
through the whole course of his life with so much hazard, he did at last with
much difficulty compass, but reaped no other fruits from it than the empty
name and invidious glory. But the great genius which attended him through his
lifetime, even after his death remained as the avenger of his murder, pursuing
through every sea and land all those who were concerned in it, and suffering
none to escape, but reaching all who in any sort or kind were either actually
engaged in the fact, or by their counsels any way promoted it.

     The most remarkable of mere human coincidences was that which befell
Cassius, who, when he was defeated at Philippi, killed himself with the same
dagger which he had made use of against Caesar. The most signal preternatural
appearances were the great comet, which shone very bright for seven nights
after Caesar's death, and then disappeared, and the dimness of the sun, ^16
whose orb continued pale and dull for the whole of that year, never showing
its ordinary radiance at its rising, and giving but a weak and feeble heat.
The air consequently was damp and gross, for want of stronger rays to open and
rarify it. The fruits, for that reason, never properly ripened, and began to
wither and fall off for want of heat, before they were fully formed. But above
all, the phantom which appeared to Brutus showed the murder was not pleasing
to the gods. The story of it is this.

[Footnote 16: - - - Solem quis dicere falsum Audeat? ille etiam caecos instare
tumultus Saepe monet, fraudemque et operta tumescere bella. Ille etiam
exstincto miseratus Caesare Romam; Cum caput obscura nitidum ferrugine texit,
Impiaque aeternam timuerunt saecula noctem. Virg. Georg. I. 463.]

     Brutus, being to pass his army from Abydos to the continent on the other
side, laid himself down one night, as he used to do, in his tent, and was not
asleep, but thinking of his affairs, and what events he might expect. For he
is related to have been the least inclined to sleep of all men who have
commanded armies, and to have had the greatest natural capacity for continuing
awake, and employing himself without need of rest. He thought he heard a noise
at the door of his tent, and looking that way, by the light of his lamp, which
was almost out, saw a terrible figure, like that of a man, but of unusual
stature and severe countenance. He was somewhat frightened at first, but
seeing it neither did nor spoke any thing to him, only stood silently by his
bedside, he asked who it was. The spectre answered him, "Thy evil genius,
Brutus, thou shalt see me at Philippi." Brutus answered courageously, "Well, I
shall see you," and immediately the appearance vanished. When the time was
come, he drew up his army near Philippi against Antony and Caesar, and in the
first battle won the day, routed the enemy, and plundered Caesar's camp. The
night before the second battle, the same phantom appeared to him again, but
spoke not a word. He presently understood his destiny was at hand, and exposed
himself to all the danger of the battle. Yet he did not die in the fight, but
seeing his men defeated, got up to the top of a rock, and there presenting his
sword to his naked breast, and assisted, as they say, by a friend, who helped
him to give the thrust, met his death.