king down, and saw a frightful
vision of a man of unusual size and savage countenance. At first he
was startled, but observing that the figure neither moved nor spoke,
but was standing silent by the bed, he asked him who he was. The
phantom replied, "Thy bad daemon, Brutus; and thou shalt see me at
Philippi." Upon which Brutus boldly replied, "I shall see;" and the
daemon immediately disappeared. In course of time having engaged with
Antonius and Caesar at Philippi, in the first battle he was victorious,
and after routing that part of the army which was opposed to him he
followed up his success and plundered Caesar's camp. As he was
preparing to fight the second battle, the same phantom appeared again
by night, without speaking to him, but Brutus, who perceived what his
fate was, threw himself headlong into the midst of the danger. However
he did not fall in the battle, but when the rout took place, he fled
to a precipitous spot, and throwing himself with his breast on his
bare sword, a friend also, as it is said, giving strength to the blow,
he died.[621] FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 435: It has been remarked by Niebuhr (_Lectures on the
History of Rome_, ii. 33) that the beginning of the Life of Caesar is
lost. He says, "Plutarch could not have passed over the ancestors, the
father, and the whole family, together with the history of Caesar's
youth, &c." But the reasons for this opinion are not conclusive. The
same reason would make us consider other lives imperfect, which are
also deficient in such matters. Plutarch, after his fashion, gives
incidental information about Caesar's youth and his family. I conceive
that he purposely avoided a formal beginning; and according to his
plan of biography, he was right. Niebuhr also observes that the
beginning of the Life of Caesar in Suetonius is imperfect; "a fact well
known, but it is only since the year 1812, that we know that the part
which is wanting contained a dedication to the praefectus praetorio of
the time, a fact which has not yet found its way into any history of
Roman Literature." It is an old opinion that the Life of Caesar in
Suetonius is imperfect. The fact that the dedication alone is wanting,
for so Niebuhr appears to mean, shows that the Life is not incomplete,
and there is no reason for thinking that it is.

C. Julius Caesar, the son of C. Julius Caesar and Aurelia, was born on
the twelfth of July, B.C. 100, in the sixth consulship of his uncle C.
Marius. His fa