xander defying his ambition yet,
and what were triumphs and divinity to one who would own the world!

It was this that preoccupied him. The immensity of his successes seemed
petty and Rome very small. Heretofore he had forgiven those who had
opposed him. Presently his attitude changed, and so subtly that it was
the more humiliating; it was not that he no longer forgave, he
disdained to punish. His contempt was absolute. The senate made his
office of pontifix maximus hereditary and accorded the title of
Imperator to his heirs. He snubbed the senate and the honors that it
brought. The senate was shocked. Composed of men whose fortunes he had
made, the senate was not only shocked, its education in ingratitude was
complete. Already there had been murmurs. Not content with disarranging
the calendar, outlining an empire, drafting a code while planning fresh
beauties, new theatres, bilingual libraries, larger temples, grander
gods, Caesar was at work in the markets, in the kitchens of the
gourmets, in the jewel-boxes of the virgins. Liberty, visibly, was
taking flight. Besides, the power concentrated in him might be so
pleasantly distributed. It was decided that Caesar was in the way. To
put him out of it a pretext was necessary.

One day the senate assembled at his command. They were to sign a decree
creating him king. In order not to, Suetonius says, they killed him,
wounding each other in the effort, for Caesar fought like the demon
that he was, desisting only when he recognized Brutus, to whom, in
Greek, he muttered a reproach, and, draping his toga that he might fall
with decency, sank backward, his head covered, a few feet from the
bronze wolf that stood, its ears pointed at the letters S. P. Q. R.
which decorated a frieze of the Curia.

Brutus turned to harangue the senate; it had fled. He went to the Forum
to address the people; there was no one. Rome was strangely empty.
Doors were barricaded, windows closed. Through the silent streets
gladiators prowled. Night came, and with it whispering groups. The
groups thickened, voices mounted. Caesar's will had been read. He had
left his gardens to the people, a gift to every citizen, his wealth and
power to his butchers. The body, which two slaves had removed, an arm
hanging from the litter, had never been as powerfully alive. Caesar
reigned then as never before. A mummer mouthed:

"I brought them life, they gave me death."

And willingly would the mob have made Rome