upon, and cast his eyes to Macedonia and Syria, to which provinces Brutus
and Cassius had retired. The Senate, too, now distrusted Octavius, and
treated him with contumely; but supported by veteran soldiers, he demanded
the consulship, and even secretly corresponded with Antonius, and assured
him of his readiness to combine with him and Lepidus, and invited them to
follow him to Rome. He marched at the head of eight legions, pretending
all the while to be coerced by them. The Senate, overawed, allowed him, at
twenty years of age, to assume the consulship, with Pedius, grand-nephew
of Caesar, for his colleague. Since Hirtius and Pansa had both fallen,
Octavius, then leaving the city in the hands of a zealous colleague,
opened negotiations with Antonius and Lepidus, perceiving that it was only
in conjunction with them that his usurpation could be maintained. They met
for negotiations at Bononia, and agreed to share the empire between them.
They declared themselves triumvirs for the settlement of the commonwealth,
and after a conference of three days, divided between themselves the
provinces and legions. They then concerted a general proscription of their
enemies. The number whom they thus doomed to destruction was three hundred
senators and two thousand knights, from the noblest families of Rome,
among whom were brothers, uncles, and favorite officers. The possession of
riches was fatal to some, and of beautiful villas to others. Cicero was
among this number, as was to be expected, for he had exhausted the Latin
language in vituperations of Antonius, whom he hated beyond all other
mortals, and which hatred was itself a passion. He spoke of Caesar with
awe, of Pompey with mortification, of Crassus with dislike, and of Antony
with bitter detestation and unsparing malice. It was impossible that he
could escape, even had he fled to the ends of the earth. The vacillation
of his last hours, his deep distress, and mournful agonies are painted by
Plutarch. He fell a martyr to the cause of truth, and public virtue, and
exalted patriotism, although his life was sullied by weakness and
infirmities, such as vanity, ambition, and jealousy. In the dark and
wicked period which he adorned by his transcendent talents and matchless
services, he lived and died in faith--the most amiable and the most noble
of all his contemporaries.

The triumvirs had now gratified their vengeance by a series of murders
never surpassed in the worst ages of re