om the assassins, at the pedestal of Pompey's statue. He is said to
have received three-and-twenty wounds. Many of his assailants struck
each other as they aimed repeated blows at his body." His funeral was a
remarkable proof of his popularity. The pit in which the body was to be
burned was erected in the Field of Mars. In the Forum was erected a
gilded model of the temple of Mother Venus. (Caesar claimed descent
through Aeneas from this goddess.) Within this shrine was a couch of
ivory, with coverlets of gold and purple, and at its head a trophy with
the robe which he had worn when he was assassinated. High officers of
state, past and present, carried the couch into the Forum. Some had the
idea of burning it in the chapel of Jupiter in the Capitol, some in
Pompey's Hall (where he was killed). Of a sudden two men, wearing swords
at their side, and each carrying two javelins, came forward and set
light to it with waxen torches which they held in their hands. The crowd
of bystanders hastily piled up a heap of dry brush-wood, throwing on it
the hustings, the benches, and any thing that had been brought as a
present. The flute players and actors threw off the triumphal robes in
which they were clad, rent them, and threw them upon the flames, and the
veterans added the decorations with which they had come to attend the
funeral, while mothers threw in the ornaments of their children.

The doors of the building in which the murder was perpetrated were
blocked up so that it never could be entered again. The day (the 15th of
March) was declared to be accursed. No public business was ever to be
done upon it.

These proceedings probably represented the popular feeling about the
deed, for Caesar, in addition to the genius which every one must have
recognized, had just the qualities which make men popular. He had no
scruples, but then he had no meannesses. He incurred enormous debts with
but a faint chance of paying them--no chance, we may say, except by the
robbery of others. He laid his hands upon what he wanted, taking for
instance three thousand pounds weight of gold from the treasury of the
Capitol and leaving gilded brass in its stead; and he plundered the
unhappy Gauls without remorse. But then he was as free in giving as he
was unscrupulous in taking. He had the personal courage, too, which is
one of the most attractive of all qualities. Again and again in battle
he turned defeat into victory. He would lay hold of the fugiti