Brutus

Plutarch

Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. VI. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1918.

However, when Cams began to hold secret communications with the officers of Brutus, and incited a revolt, Brutus put him on board a ship and kept him under guard.

And when the soldiers who had been corrupted by Caius withdrew to Apollonia and invited Brutus to come to them there, he told them this was not a Roman custom, but that they must come themselves to their commander and seek to avert his wrath at their transgressions. And when they came and asked his pardon, he granted it.

But as he was about to cross into Asia, tidings came to him of the change that had taken place at Rome. For Octavius Caesar had been strengthened by the senate against Antony, and after ejecting his rival from Italy, was himself now an object of fear, soliciting the consulship illegally, and maintaining large armies, of which the city had no need.

But when he saw that even the senate was displeased at this and turned their eyes abroad to Brutus, confirming him in command of his provinces by their vote, he became afraid.

So he sent and invited Antony to become his friend, and then, stationing his forces about the city, secured the consulship, although he was still a mere youth, being in his twentieth year, as he himself has stated in his Commentaries.

Straightway, then, he brought indictments for murder against Brutus and his associates, accusing them of having slain the first magistrate of the city without a trial. He appointed Lucius Cornificius to be prosecutor of Brutus, and Marcus Agrippa of Cassius. Accordingly, their cases went by default, the jurors voting under compulsion.