Brutus

After Hortensius the praetor had delivered up Macedonia to him, and while all the surrounding kings and potentates were uniting on his side, word was brought that Caius, the brother of Antony, had crossed over from Italy and was marching directly to join the forces under Vatinius in Epidamnus and Apollonia.

Wishing, therefore, to anticipate his arrival and capture these forces, Brutus suddenly set out with the forces under him and marched through regions difficult of passage, in snow storms, and far in advance of his provision-train. Accordingly, when he had nearly reached Epidamnus, fatigue and cold gave him the distemper called boulimia.

This attacks more especially men and beasts toiling through snow;[*](As it did the Ten Thousand in Armenia (Xenophon, Anab. iv. 5, 7 f.).) whether it is that the vital heat, being wholly shut up within the body by the cold that surrounds and thickens it, consumes its nourishment completely, or that a keen and subtle vapour arising from the melting snow pierces the body and destroys its heat as it issues forth.

For the sweat of the body seems to be produced by its heat, and this is extinguished by the cold which meets it at the surface. But I have discussed this matter more at length elsewhere.[*](Cf., for example, Morals, pp. 691 f. )

Now, since Brutus was faint, and since not one of his soldiers had anything in the shape of food, his attendants were obliged to have recourse to their enemies, and going down to the gate of the city they asked the sentinels for bread.

These, when they heard of the mishap of Brutus, came to him themselves, bringing food and drink. Wherefore Brutus, when the city had surrendered to him, treated not only these men humanely, but also all the other citizens for their sake.