ty from thence with
a regular army. He deluged Suessa, a most beautiful town, now of
municipal citizens, formerly of most honourable colonists, with the
blood of the bravest soldiers. At Brundusium he massacred the chosen
centurions of the Martial legion in the lap of his wife, who was not
only most avaricious but also most cruel. After that with what fury,
with what eagerness did he hurry on to the city, that is to say, to
the slaughter of every virtuous man! But at that time the immortal
gods brought to us a protector whom we had never seen nor expected.

IX. For the incredible and godlike virtue of Caesar checked the cruel
and frantic onslaught of that robber, whom then that madman believed
that he was injuring with his edicts, ignorant that all the charges
which he was falsely alleging against that most righteous young man,
were all very appropriate to the recollections of his own childhood.
He entered the city, with what an escort, or rather with what a troop!
when on the right hand and on the left, amid the groans of the Roman
people, he was threatening the owners of property, taking notes of the
houses, and openly promising to divide the city among his followers.
He returned to his soldiers; then came that mischievous assembly at
Tibur. From thence he hurried to the city; the senate was convened at
the Capitol. A decree with the authority of the consuls was prepared
for proscribing the young man; when all on a sudden (for he was aware
that the Martial legion had encamped at Alba) news is brought him of
the proceedings of the fourth legion.

Alarmed at that, he abandoned his intention of submitting a motion to
the senate respecting Caesar. He departed not by the regular roads, but
by the by-lanes, in the robe of a general; and on that very self-same
day he trumped up a countless number of resolutions of the senate; all
of which he published even before they were drawn up. From thence it
was not a journey, but a race and flight into Gaul. He thought that
Caesar was pursuing him with the fourth legion, with the martial
legion, with the veterans, whose very name he could not endure for
fright. Then, as he was making his way into Gaul, Decimus Brutus
opposed him; who preferred being himself surrounded by the waves of
the whole war, to allowing him either to retreat or advance; and who
put Mutina on him as a sort of bridle to his exultation. And when he
had blockaded that city with his works and fortifications, and wh