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$Title{Plutarch's Lives
Part I}
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$Author{Plutarch}
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$Subject{antony
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$Date{c75}
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Title:       Plutarch's Lives
Book:        Antony
Author:      Plutarch
Date:        c75
Translation: Dryden, Arthur Hugh Clough

Part I

     The grandfather of Antony was the famous pleader, whom Marius put to
death for having taken part with Sylla. His father was Antony, surnamed of
Crete, not very famous or distinguished in public life, but a worthy, good
man, and particularly remarkable for his liberality, as may appear from a
single example. He was not very rich, and was for that reason checked in the
exercise of his good-nature by his wife. A friend that stood in need of money
came to borrow of him. Money he had none, but he bade a servant bring him
water in a silver basin, with which, when it was brought, he wetted his face,
as if he meant to shave; and, sending away the servant upon another errand,
gave his friend the basin, desiring him to turn it to his purpose. And when
there was, afterwards, a great inquiry for it in the house, and his wife was
in a very ill humor, and was going to put the servants one by one to the
search, he acknowledged what he had done, and begged her pardon.

     His wife was Julia, of the family of the Caesars, who, for her discretion
and fair behavior, was not inferior to any of her time. Under her, Antony
received his education, she being, after the death of his father, remarried to
Cornelius Lentulus, who was put to death by Cicero for having been of
Catiline's conspiracy. This, probably, was the first ground and occasion of
that mortal grudge that Antony bore Cicero. He says, even, that the body of
Lentulus was denied burial, till, by application made to Cicero's wife, it was
granted to Julia. But this seems to be a manifest error, for none of those
that suffered in the consulate of Cicero had the right of burial denied them.
Antony grew up a very beautiful youth, but, by the worst of misfortunes, he
fell into the acquaintance and friendship of Curio, a man abandoned to his
pleasures; who, to make Antony's dependence upon him a matter of greater
necessity, plunged him into a life of drinking and dissipation, and led him
through a course of such extravagance, that he ran, at that early age, into
debt to the amount of two hundred and fifty talents. For this sum, Curio
became his surety; on hearing which, the elder Curio, his father, drove Antony
out of his house. After this, for some short time, he took part with Clodius,
the most insolent and outrageous demagogue of the time, in his course of
violence and disorder; but, getting weary, before long, of his madness, and
apprehensive of the powerful party forming against him, he left Italy, and
travelled into Greece, where he spent his time in military exercises and in
the study of eloquence. He took most to what was called the Asiatic taste in
speaking, which was then at its height, and was, in many ways, suitable to his
ostentatious, vaunting temper, full of empty flourishes and unsteady efforts
for glory.

     After some stay in Greece, he was invited by Gabinius, who had been
consul, to make a campaign with him in Syria, which at first he refused, not
being willing to serve in a private character, but, receiving a commission to
command the horse, he went along with him. His first service was against
Aristobulus, who had prevailed with the Jews to rebel. Here he was himself the
first man to scale the largest of the works, and beat Aristobulus out of all
of them; after which he routed, in a pitched battle, an army many times over
the number of his, killed almost all of them, and took Aristobulus and his son
prisoners. This war ended, Gabinius was solicited by Ptolemy to restore him to
his kingdom of Egypt, and a promise made of ten thousand talents reward. Most
of the officers were against this enterprise, and Gabinius himself did not
much like it, though sorely tempted by the ten thousand talents. But Antony,
desirous of brave actions, and willing to please Ptolemy, joined in persuading
Gabinius to go. And whereas all were of opinion that the most dangerous thing
before them was the march to Pelusium, in which they would have to pass over a
deep sand, where no fresh water was to be hoped for, along the Ecregma and the
Serbonian marsh (which the Egyptians call Typhon's breathing-hole, and which
is, in probability, water left behind by, or making its way through from, the
Red Sea, which is here divided from the Mediterranean by a narrow isthmus),
Antony, being ordered thither with the horse, not only made himself master of
the passes, but won Pelusium itself, a great city, took the garrison
prisoners, and, by this means, rendered the march secure to the army, and the
way to victory not difficult for the general to pursue. The enemy, also,
reaped some benefit of his eagerness for honor. For when Ptolemy, after he had
entered Pelusium, in his rage and spite against the Egyptians, designed to put
them to the sword, Antony withstood him, and hindered the execution. In all
the great and frequent skirmishes and battles, he gave continual proofs of his
personal valor and military conduct; and once in particular, by wheeling about
and attacking the rear of the enemy, he gave the victory to the assailants in
the front, and received for this service signal marks of distinction. Nor was
his humanity towards the deceased Archelaus less taken notice of. He had been
formerly his guest and acquaintance, and, as he was now compelled, he fought
him bravely while alive, but, on his death, sought out his body and buried it
with royal honors. The consequence was that he left behind him a great name
among the Alexandrians, and all who were serving in the Roman army looked upon
him as a most gallant soldier.

     He had also a very good and noble appearance; his beard was well grown,
his forehead large, and his nose aquiline, giving him altogether a bold,
masculine look, that reminded people of the faces of Hercules in paintings and
sculptures. It was, moreover, an ancient tradition, that the Antonys were
descended from Hercules, by a son of his called Anton; and this opinion he
thought to give credit to, by the similarity of his person just mentioned, and
also by the fashion of his dress. For, whenever he had to appear before large
numbers, he wore his tunic girt low about the hips, a broadsword on his side,
and over all a large, coarse mantle. What might seem to some very
insupportable, his vaunting, his raillery, his drinking in public, sitting
down by the men as they were taking their food, and eating, as he stood, off
the common soldiers' tables, made him the delight and pleasure of the army. In
love affairs, also, he was very agreeable; he gained many friends by the
assistance he gave them in theirs, and took other people's raillery upon his
own with good-humor. And his generous ways, his open and lavish hand in gifts
and favors to his friends and fellow-soldiers, did a great deal for him in his
first advance to power, and, after he had become great, long maintained his
fortunes, when a thousand follies were hastening their overthrow. One instance
of his liberality I must relate. He had ordered payment to one of his friends
of twenty-five myriads of money, or decies, as the Romans call it, and his
steward, wondering at the extravagance of the sum, laid all the silver in a
heap, as he should pass by. Antony, seeing the heap, asked what it meant; his
steward replied, "The money you have ordered to be given to your friend." So,
perceiving the man's malice, said he, "I thought the decies had been much
more; 't is too little; let it be doubled." This, however, was at a later
time.

     When the Roman state finally broke up into two hostile factions, the
aristocratical party joining Pompey, who was in the city, and the popular side
seeking help from Caesar, who was at the head of an army in Gaul, Curio, the
friend of Antony, having changed his party and devoted himself to Caesar,
brought over to Antony also to his service. And the influence which he gained
with the people by his eloquence and by the money which was supplied by Caesar
enabled him to make Antony, first, tribune of the people, and then, augur. And
Antony's accession to office was at once of the greatest advantage to Caesar.
In the first place, he resisted the consul Marcellus, who was putting under
Pompey's orders the troops who were already collected, and was giving him
power to raise new levies; he, on the other hand, making an order that they
should be sent into Syria to reinforce Bibulus, who was making war with the
Parthians, and that no one should give in his name to serve under Pompey.
Next, when the senators would not suffer Caesar's letters to be received or
read in the senate, by virtue of his office he read them publicly, and
succeeded so well, that many were brought to change their mind; Caesar's
demands, as they appeared in what he wrote, being but just and reasonable. At
length, two questions being put in the senate, the one, whether Pompey should
dismiss his army, the other, if Caesar his, some were for the former, for the
latter all, except some few, when Antony stood up and put the question, if it
would be agreeable to them that both Pompey and Caesar should dismiss their
armies. This proposal met with the greatest approval, they gave him loud
acclamations, and called for it to be put to the vote. But when the consuls
would not have it so, Caesar's friends again made some new offers, very fair
and equitable, but were strongly opposed by Cato, and Antony himself was
commanded to leave the senate by the consul Lentulus. So, leaving them with
execrations, and disguising himself in a servant's dress, hiring a carriage
with Quintus Cassius, he went straight away to Caesar, declaring at once, when
they reached the camp, that affairs at Rome were conducted without any order
or justice, that the privilege of speaking in the senate was denied the
tribunes, and that he who spoke for common fair dealing was driven out and in
danger of his life.

     Upon this, Caesar set his army in motion, and marched into Italy; and for
this reason it is that Cicero writes in his Philippics, that Antony was as
much the cause of the civil war, as Helen was of the Trojan. But this is but a
calumny. For Caesar was not of so slight or weak a temper as to suffer himself
to be carried away, by the indignation of the moment, into a civil war with
his country, upon the sight of Antony and Cassius seeking refuge in his camp,
meanly dressed and in a hired carriage, without ever having thought of it or
taken any such resolution long before. This was to him, who wanted a pretence
of declaring war, a fair and plausible occasion; but the true motive that led
him was the same that formerly led Alexander and Cyrus against all mankind,
the unquenchable thirst of empire, and the distracted ambition of being the
greatest man in the world, which was impracticable for him, unless Pompey were
put down. So soon, then, as he had advanced and occupied Rome, and driven
Pompey out of Italy, he purposed first to go against the legions that Pompey
had in Spain, and then cross over and follow him with the fleet that should be
prepared during his absence, in the mean time leaving the government of Rome
to Lepidus, as praetor, and the command of the troops and of Italy to Antony,
as tribune of the people. Antony was not long in getting the hearts of the
soldiers, joining with them in their exercises, and for the most part living
amongst them, and making them presents to the utmost of his abilities; but
with all others he was unpopular enough. He was too lazy to pay attention to
the complaints of persons who were injured; he listened impatiently to
petitions; and he had an ill name for familiarity with other people's wives.
In short, the government of Caesar (which, so far as he was concerned himself,
had the appearance of any thing rather than a tyranny), got a bad repute
through his friends, And of these friends, Antony, as he had the largest
trust, and committed the greatest errors, was thought the most deeply in
fault.

     Caesar, however, at his return form Spain, overlooked the charges against
him, and had no reason ever to complain, in the employments he gave him in the
war, of any want of courage, energy, or military skill. He himself, going
aboard at Brundusium, sailed over the Ionian Sea with a few troops, and sent
back the vessels with orders to Antony and Gabinius to embark the army, and
come over with all speed into Macedonia. Gabinius, having no mind to put to
sea in the rough, dangerous weather of the winter season, was for marching the
army round by the long land route; but Antony, being more afraid lest Caesar
might suffer from the number of his enemies, who pressed him hard, beat back
Libo, who was watching with a fleet at the mouth of the haven of Brundusium,
by attacking his galleys with a number of small boats, and, gaining thus an
opportunity, put on board twenty thousand foot and eight hundred horse, and so
set out to sea. And, being espied by the enemy and pursued, from this danger
he was rescued by a strong south wind, which sprang up and raised so high a
sea, that the enemy's galleys could make little way. But his own ships were
driving before it upon a lee shore of cliffs and rocks running sheer to the
water, where there was no hope of escape, when all of a sudden the wind turned
about to south-west, and blew from land to the main sea, where Antony, now
sailing in security, saw the coast all covered with the wreck of the enemy's
fleet. For hither the galleys in pursuit had been carried by the gale, and not
a few of them dashed to pieces. Many men and much property fell into Antony's
hands; he took also the town of Lissus, and, by the seasonable arrival of so
large a reinforcement, gave Caesar great encouragement.

     There was not one of the many engagements that now took place one after
another in which he did not signalize himself; twice he stopped the army in
its full flight, led them back to a charge, and gained the victory. So that
not without reason his reputation, next to Caesar's, was greatest in the army.
And what opinion Caesar himself had of him well appeared when for the final
battle in Pharsalia, which was to determine every thing, he himself chose to
lead the right wing, committing the charge of the left to Antony, as to the
best officer of all that served under him. After the battle, Caesar, being
created dictator, went in pursuit of Pompey, and sent Antony to Rome, with the
character of Master of the Horse, who is in office and power next to the
dictator, when present, and in his absence is the first, and pretty nearly
indeed the sole magistrate. For on the appointment of a dictator, with the one
exception of the tribunes, all other magistrates cease to exercise any
authority in Rome.

     Dolabella, however, who was tribune, being a young man and eager for
change, was now for bringing in a general measure for cancelling debts, and
wanted Antony, who was his friend, and forward enough to promote any popular
project, to take part with him in this step. Asinius and Trebellius were of
the contrary opinion, and it so happened at the same time, Antony was crossed
by a terrible suspicion that Dolabella was too familiar with his wife; and in
great trouble at this, he parted with her (she being his cousin, and daughter
to Caius Antonius, the colleague of Cicero), and, taking part with Asinius,
came to open hostilities with Dolabella, who had seized on the forum,
intending to pass his law by force. Antony, backed by a vote of the senate
that Dolabella should be put down by force of arms, went down and attacked
him, killing some of his, and losing some of his own men; and by this action
lost his favor with the commonalty, while with the better class and with all
well conducted people his general course of life made him, as Cicero says,
absolutely odious, utter disgust being excited by his drinking bouts at all
hours, his wild expenses, his gross amours, the day spent in sleeping or
walking off his debauches, and the night in banquets and at theatres, and in
celebrating the nuptials of some comedian or buffoon. It is related that,
drinking all night at the wedding of Hippias, the comedian, on the morning,
having to harangue the people, he came forward, overcharged as he was, and
vomited before them all, one of his friends holding his gown for him. Sergius,
the player, was one of the friends who could do most with him; also Cytheris,
a woman of the same trade, whom he made much of, and who, when he went his
progress, accompanied him in a litter, and had her equipage, not in any thing
inferior to his mother's; while every one, moreover, was scandtlized at the
sight of the golden cups that he took with him, fitter for the ornaments of a
procession than the uses of a journey, at his having pavilions set up, and
sumptuous morning repasts laid out by river sides and in groves, at his having
chariots drawn by lions, and common women and singing girls quartered upon the
houses of serious fathers and mothers of families. And it seemed very
unreasonable that Caesar, out of Italy, should lodge in the open field, and,
with great fatigue and danger, pursue the remainder of a hazardous war, whilst
others, by favor of his authority, should insult the citizens with their
impudent luxury.

     All this appears to have aggravated party quarrels in Rome, and to have
encouraged the soldiers in acts of license and rapacity. And, accordingly,
when Caesar came home, he acquitted Dolabella, and, being created the third
time consul, took, not Antony, but Lepidus, for his colleague. Pompey's house
being offered for sale, Antony bought it, and, when the price was demanded of
him, loudly complained. This, he tells us himself, and because he thought his
former services had not been recompensed as they deserved, made him not follow
Caesar with the army into Libya. However, Caesar, by dealing gently with his
errors, seems to have succeeded in curing him of a good deal of his folly and
extravagance. He gave up his former courses, and took a wife, Fulvia, the
widow of Clodius the demagogue, a woman not born for spinning or housewifery,
nor one that could be content with ruling a private husband, but prepared to
govern a first magistrate, or give orders to a commander-in-chief, so that
Cleopatra had great obligations to her for having taught Antony to be So good
a servant, he coming to her hands tame and broken into entire obedience to the
commands of a mistress. He used to play all sorts of sportive, boyish tricks,
to keep Fulvia in goodhumor. As, for example, when Caesar, after his victory
in Spain, was on his return, Antony, among the rest, went out to meet him;
and, a rumor being spread that Caesar was killed and the enemy marching into
Italy, he returned to Rome, and, disguising himself, came to her by night
muffled up as a servant that brought letters from Antony. She, with great
impatience, before she received the letter, asks if Antony were well, and
instead of an answer he gives her the letter; and, as she was opening it, took
her about the neck and kissed her. This little story of many of the same
nature, I give as a specimen.

     There was nobody of any rank in Rome that did not go some days' journey
to meet Caesar on his return from Spain; but Antony was the best received of
any, admitted to ride the whole journey with him in his carriage, while behind
came Brutus Albinus, and Octavian, his niece's son, who afterwards bore his
name and reigned so long over the Romans. Caesar being created, the fifth
time, consul, without delay chose Antony for his colleague, but, designing
himself to give up his own consulate to Dolabella, he acquainted the senate
with his resolution. But Antony opposed it with all his might, saying much
that was bad against Dolabella, and receiving the like language in return,
till Caesar could bear with the indecency no longer, and deferred the matter
to another time. Afterwards, when he came before the people to proclaim
Dolabella, Antony cried out that the auspices were unfavorable, so that at
last Caesar, much to Dolabella's vexation, yielded and gave it up. And it is
credible that Caesar was about as much disgusted with the one as the other.
When some one was accusing them both to him, "It is not, " said he, "these
well-fed, long-haired men that I fear, but the pale and the hungry looking;"
meaning Brutus and Cassius, by whose conspiracy he afterwards fell.

     And the fairest pretext for that conspiracy was furnished, without his
meaning it, by Antony himself. The Romans were celebrating their festival,
called the Lupercalia, when Caesar, in his triumphal habit, and seated above
the Rostra in the market-place, was a spectator of the sports. The custom is,
that many young noblemen and of the magistracy, anointed with oil and having
straps of hide in their hands, run about and strike, in sport, at every one
they meet. Antony was running with the rest; but, omitting the old ceremony,
twining a garland of bay round a diadem, he ran up to the Rostra, and, being
lifted up by his companions, would have put it upon the head of Caesar, as if
by that ceremony he were declared king. Caesar seemingly refused, and drew
aside to avoid it, and was applauded by the people with great shouts. Again
Antony pressed it, and again he declined its acceptance. And so the dispute
between them went on for some time, Antony's solicitations receiving but
little encouragement from the shouts of a few friends, and Caesar's refusal
being accompanied with the general applause of the people; a curious thing
enough, that they should submit with patience to the fact, and yet at the same
time dread the name as the destruction of their liberty. Caesar, very much
discomposed at what had past, got up from his seat, and, laying bare his neck,
said, he was ready to receive the stroke, if any one of them desired to give
it. The crown was at last put on one of his statues, but was taken down by
some of the tribunes, who were followed home by the people with shouts of
applause. Caesar, however, resented it, and deposed them.

     These passages gave great encouragement to Brutus and Cassius, who, in
making choice of trusty friends for such an enterprise, were thinking to
engage Antony. The rest approved, except Trebonius, who told them that Antony
and he had lodged and travelled together in the last journey they took to meet
Caesar, and that he had let fall several words, in a cautious way, on purpose
to sound him; that Antony very well understood him, but did not encourage it;
however, he had said nothing of it to Caesar, but had kept the secret
faithfully. The conspirators then proposed that Antony should die with him,
which Brutus would not consent to, insisting that an action undertaken in
defence of right and the laws must be maintained unsullied, and pure of
injustice. It was settled that Antony, whose bodily strength and high office
made him formidable, should, at Caesar's entrance into the senate, when the
deed was to be done, be amused outside by some of the party in a conversation
about some pretended business.

     So when all was proceeded with, according to their plan, and Caesar had
fallen in the senate-house, Antony, at the first moment, took a servant's
dress, and hid himself. But, understanding that the conspirators had assembled
in the Capitol, and had no further design upon any one, he persuaded them to
come down, giving them his son as a hostage. That night Cassius supped at
Antony's house, and Brutus with Lepidus. Antony then convened the senate, and
spoke in favor of an act of oblivion, and the appointment of Brutus and
Cassius to provinces. These measures the senate passed; and resolved that all
Caesar's acts should remain in force. Thus Antony went out of the senate with
the highest possible reputation and esteem; for it was apparent that he had
prevented a civil war, and had composed, in the wisest and most statesmanlike
way, questions of the greatest difficulty and embarrassment. But these
temperate counsels were soon swept away by the tide of popular applause, and
the prospects, if Brutus were overthrown, of being without doubt the
ruler-in-chief. As Caesar's body was conveying to the tomb, Antony, according
to the custom, was making his funeral oration in the market-place, and,
perceiving the people to be infinitely affected with what he had said, he
began to mingle with his praises language of commiseration, and horror at what
had happened, and, as he was ending his speech, he took the under-clothes of
the dead, and held them up, shewing them stains of blood and the holes of the
many stabs, calling those that had done this act villains and bloody
murderers. All which excited the people to such indignation, that they would
not defer the funeral, but, making a pile of tables and forms in the very
market-place, set fire to it; and every one, taking a brand, ran to the
conspirators' houses, to attack them.

     Upon this, Brutus and his whole party left the city, and Caesar's friends
joined themselves to Antony. Calpurnia, Caesar's wife, lodged with him the
best part of the property, to the value of four thousand talents; he got also
into his hands all Caesar's papers, wherein were contained journals of all he
had done, and draughts of what he designed to do, which Antony made good use
of; for by this means he appointed what magistrates he pleased, brought whom
he would into the senate, recalled some from exile, freed others out of
prison, and all this as ordered so by Caesar. The Romans, in mockery, gave
those who were thus benefited the name of Charonites, ^1 since, if put to
prove their patents, they must have recourse to the papers of the dead. In
short, Antony's behavior in Rome was very absolute, he himself being consul,
and his two brothers in great place; Caius, the one, being praetor, and
Lucius, the other, tribune of the people.

[Footnote 1: Suetonius says Orcini; which was the common name given, even in
the law-books, to slaves manumitted by their owner, after his death, by his
will. Charonitae, freedmen of Charon, may have been a Greek translation of the
Latin Orcini, freedmen of Orcus, or the world below; or it was perhaps a more
familiar word for the same thing.]

     While matters went thus in Rome, the young Caesar, Caesar's niece's son,
and by testament left his heir, arrived at Rome from Apollonia, where he was
when his uncle was killed. The first thing he did was to visit Antony, as his
father's friend. He spoke to him concerning the money that was in his hands,
and reminded him of the legacy Caesar had made of seventy-five drachmas to
every Roman citizen. Antony, at first, laughing at such discourse from so
young a man, told him he wished he were in his health, and that he wanted good
counsel and good friends, to tell him the burden of being executor to Caesar
would sit very uneasily upon his young shoulders. This was no answer to him;
and, when he persisted in demanding the property, Antony went on treating him
injuriously both in word and deed, opposed him when he stood for the tribune's
office, and, when he was taking steps for the dedication of his father's
golden chair, as had been enacted, he threatened to send him to prison if he
did not give over soliciting the people. This made the young Caesar apply
himself to Cicero, and all those that hated Antony; by them he was recommended
to the senate, while he himself courted the people, and drew together the
soldiers from their settlements, till Antony got alarmed, and gave him a
meeting in the Capitol, where, after some words, they came to an
accommodation.

     That night Antony had a very unlucky dream, fancying that his right hand
was thunderstruck. And, some few days after, he was informed that Caesar was
plotting to take his life. Caesar explained, but was not believed, so that the
breach was now made as wide as ever; each of them hurried about all through
Italy to engage, by great offers, the old soldiers that lay scattered in their
settlements, and to be the first to secure the troops that still remained
undischarged.

     Cicero was at this time the man of greatest influence in Rome. He made
use of all his art to exasperate people against Antony, and at length
persuaded the senate to declare him a public enemy, to send Caesar the rods
and axes and other marks of honor usually given to praetors, and to issue
orders to Hirtius and Pansa, who were the consuls, to drive Antony out of
Italy. The armies engaged near Modena, and Caesar himself was present and took
part in the battle. Antony was defeated, but both the consuls were slain.
Antony, in his flight, was overtaken by distresses of every kind, and the
worst of all of them was famine. But it was his character in calamities to be
better than at any other time. Antony, in misfortune, was most nearly a
virtuous man. It is common enough for people, when they fall into great
disasters, to discern what is right, and what they ought to do; but there are
but few who in such extremities have the strength to obey their judgment,
either in doing what it approves or avoiding what it condemns; and a good many
are so weak as to give way to their habits all the more, and are incapable of
using their minds. Antony, on this occasion, was a most wonderful example to
his soldiers. He, who had just quitted so much luxury and sumptuous living,
made no difficulty now of drinking foul water and feeding on wild fruits and
roots. Nay, it is related they ate the very bark of trees, and, in passing
over the Alps, lived upon creatures that no one before had ever been willing
to touch.

     The design was to join the army on the other side the Alps, commanded by
Lepidus, who he imagined would stand his friend, he having done him many good
offices with Caesar. On coming up and encamping near at hand, finding he had
no sort of encouragement offered him, he resolved to push his fortune and
venture all. His hair was long and disordered, nor had he shaved his beard
since his defeat; in this guise, and with a dark colored cloak flung over him,
he came into the trenches of Lepidus, and began to address the army. Some were
moved at his habit, others at his words, so that Lepidus, not liking it,
ordered the trumpets to sound, that he might be heard no longer. This raised
in the soldiers yet a greater pity, so that they resolved to confer secretly
with him, and dressed Laelius and Clodius in women's clothes, and sent them to
see him. They advised him without delay to attack Lepidu's trenches, assuring
him that a strong party would receive him, and, if he wished it, would kill
Lepidus. Antony, however, had no wish for this, but next morning marched his
army to pass over the river that parted the two camps. He was himself the
first man that stepped in, and, as he went through towards the other bank, he
saw Lepidus' soldiers in great numbers reaching out their hands to help him,
and beating down the works to make him way. Being entered into the camp, and
finding himself absolute master, he nevertheless treated Lepidus with the
greatest civility, and gave him the title of Father, when he spoke to him,
and, though he had everything at his own command, he left him the honor of
being called the general. This fair usage brought over to him Munatius
Plancus, who was not far off with a considerable force. Thus in great strength
he repassed the Alps, leading with him into Italy seventeen legions and ten
thousand horse, besides six legions which he left in garrison under the
command of Varius, one of his familiar friends and boon companions, whom they
used to call by the nickname of Cotylon. ^2

[Footnote 2: From Cotyle, a cup.]

     Caesar, perceiving that Cicero's wishes were for liberty, had ceased to
pay any further regard to him, and was now employing the mediation of his
friends to come to a good understanding with Antony. They both met together
with Lepidus in a small island, where the conference lasted three days. The
empire was soon determined of, it being divided amongst them as if it had been
their paternal inheritance. That which gave them all the trouble was to agree
who should be put to death, each of them desiring to destroy his enemies and
to save his friends. But, in the end, animosity to those they hated carried
the day against respect for relations and affection for friends; and Caesar
sacrificed Cicero to Antony, Antony gave up his uncle Lucius Caesar, and
Lepidus received permission to murder his brother Paulus, or, as others say,
yielded his brother to them. I do not believe anything ever took place more
truly savage or barbarous than this composition, for, in this exchange of
blood for blood, they were equally guilty of the lives they surrendered and of
those they took; or, indeed more guilty in the case of their friends, for
whose deaths they had not even the justification of hatred. To complete the
reconciliation, the soldiery, coming about them, demanded that confirmation
should be given to it by some alliance of marriage; Caesar should marry
Clodia, the daughter of Fulvia, wife to Antony. This also being agreed to,
three hundred persons were put to death by proscription. Antony gave orders to
those that were to kill Cicero, to cut off his head and right hand, with which
he had written his invectives against him; and, when they were brought before
him, he regarded them joyfully, actually bursting out more than once into
laughter, and, when he had satiated himself with the sight of them, ordered
them to be hung up above the speaker's place in the forum, thinking thus to
insult the dead, while in fact he only exposed his own wanton arrogance, and
his unworthiness to hold the power that fortune had given him. His uncle
Lucius Caesar, being closely pursued, took refuge with his sister, who, when
the murderers had broken into her house and were pressing into her chamber,
met them at the door, and, spreading out her hands, cried out several times,
"You shall not kill Lucius Caesar till you first dispatch me, who gave your
general his birth;" and in this manner she succeeded in getting her brother
out of the way, and saving his life.

     This triumvirate was very hateful to the Romans, and Antony most of all
bore the blame, because he was older than Caesar, and had greater authority
than Lepidus, and withal he was no sooner settled in his affairs, but he
returned to his luxurious and dissolute way of living. Besides the ill
reputation he gained by his general behavior, it was some considerable
disadvantage to him his living in the house of Pompey the Great, who had been
as much admired for his temperance and his sober, citizen-like habits of life,
as ever he was for having triumphed three times. They could not without anger
see the doors of that house shut against magistrates, officers, and envoys,
who were shamefully refused admittance, while it was filled inside with
players, jugglers, and drunken flatterers, upon whom were spent the greatest
part of the wealth which violence and cruelty procured. For they did not limit
themselves to the forfeiture of the estates of such as were proscribed,
defrauding the widows and families, nor were they contended with laying on
every possible kind of tax and imposition; but, hearing that several sums of
money were, as well by strangers as citizens of Rome, deposited in the hands
of the vestal virgins, they went and took the money away by force. When it was
manifest that nothing would ever be enough for Antony, Caesar at last called
for a division of property. The army was also divided between them, upon their
march into Macedonia to make war with Brutus and Cassius, Lepidus being left
with the command of the city.

     However, after they had crossed the sea and engaged in operations of war,
encamping in front of the enemy, Antony opposite Cassius, and Caesar opposite
Brutus, Caesar did nothing worth relating, and all the success and victory
were Antony's. In the first battle, Caesar was completely routed by Brutus,
his camp taken, he himself very narrowly escaping by flight. As he himself
writes in his Memoirs, he retired before the battle, on account of a dream
which one of his friends had. But Antony, on the other hand, defeated Cassius;
though some have written that he was not actually present in the engagement,
and only joined afterwards in the pursuit. Cassius was killed, at his own
entreaty and order, by one of his most trusted freedmen, Pindarus, not being
aware of Brutus' victory. After a few days' interval, they fought another
battle, in which Brutus lost the day, and slew himself; and Caesar being sick,
Antony had almost all the honor of the victory. Standing over Brutus' dead
body, he uttered a few words of reproach upon him for the death of his brother
Caius, who had been executed by Brutus' order in Macedonia in revenge of
Cicero; but, saying presently that Hortensius was most to blame for it, he
gave order for his being slain upon his brother's tomb, and, throwing his own
scarlet mantle, which was of great value, upon the body of Brutus, he gave
charge to one of his own freedmen to take care of his funeral. This man, as
Antony came to understand, did not leave the mantle with the corpse, but kept
both it and a good part of the money that should have been spent in the
funeral for himself; for which he had him put to death.

     But Caesar was conveyed to Rome, no one expecting that he would long
survive. Antony, proposing to go to the eastern provinces to lay them under
contribution, entered Greece with a large force. The promise had been made
that every common soldier should receive for his pay five thousand drachmas;
so it was likely there would be need of pretty severe taxing and levying to
raise money. However, to the Greeks he showed at first reason and moderation
enough; he gratified his love of amusement by hearing the learned men dispute,
by seeing the games, and undergoing initiation; and in judicial matters he was
equitable, taking pleasure in being styled a lover of Greece, but, above all,
in being called a lover of Athens, to which city he made very considerable
presents. The people of Megara wished to let him know that they also had
something to show him, and invited him to come and see their senate-house. So
he went and examined it, and on their asking him how he liked it, told them it
was "not very large, but extremely ruinous." At the same time, he had a survey
made of the temple of the Pythian Apollo, as if he had designed to repair it,
and indeed he had declared to the senate his intention so to do.

     However, leaving Lucius Censorinus in Greece, he crossed over into Asia,
and there laid his hands on the stores of accumulated wealth, while kings
waited at his door, and queens were rivalling one another, who should make him
the greatest presents or appear most charming in his eyes. Thus, whilst Caesar
in Rome was wearing out his strength amidst seditions and wars, Antony, with
nothing to do amidst the enjoyments of peace, let his passions carry him
easily back to the old course of life that was familiar to him. A set of
harpers and pipers, Anaxenor and Xuthus, the dancing-man Metrodorus, and a
whole Bacchic rout of the like Asiatic exhibitors, far outdoing in license and
buffoonery the pests that had followed out of Italy, came in and possessed the
court; the thing was past patience, wealth of all kinds being wasted on
objects like these. The whole of Asia was like the city in Sophocles, loaded,
at one time,

     "------ with incense in the air,
     Jubilant songs, and outcries of despair."