nd also Cicero. A man has to inquire of his own heart
with what amount of criminality he can accuse the Cicero of the day, or
the young Augustus. Can any one say that Cicero was base to have
rejoiced that Caesar had been killed? Can any one not regard with horror
the young Consul, as he sat there in the privacy of the island, with
Antony on one side and Lepidus on the other, and then in the first days
of his youth, with the down just coming on his cheeks, sending forth his
edict for slaughtering the old friend of the Republic?

[Sidenote: B.C. 43, aetat. 64.]

It is supposed that Cicero left Rome in company with his brother
Quintus, and that at first they went to Tusculum. There was no bar to
their escaping from Italy had they so chosen, and probably such was
their intention as soon as tidings reached them of the proscription. It
is pleasant to think that they should again have become friends before
they died. In truth, Marcus the elder was responsible for his brother's
fate. Quintus had foreseen the sun rising in the political horizon, and
had made his adorations accordingly. He, with others of his class, had
shown himself ready to bow down before Caesar. With his brother's assent
he had become Caesar's lieutenant in Gaul, such employment being in
conformity with the practice of the Republic. When Caesar had returned,
and the question as to power arose at once between Caesar and Pompey,
Quintus, who had then been with his brother in Cilicia, was restrained
by the influence of Marcus; but after Pharsalia the influence of Marcus
was on the wane. We remember how young Quintus had broken away and had
joined Caesar's party. He had sunk so low that he had become "Antony's
right hand." In that direction lay money, luxury, and all those good
things which the government of the day had to offer. Cicero was so much
in Caesar's eyes, that Caesar despised the elder and the younger Quintus
for deserting their great relative, and would hardly have them. The
influence of the brother and the uncle sat heavily on them. The shame of
being Caesarean while he was Pompeian, the shame of siding with Antony
while he sided with the Republic, had been too great for them. While he
was speaking his Philippics they could not but be enthusiastic on the
same side. And now, when he was proscribed, they were both proscribed
with him. As the story goes, Quintus returned from Tusculum to Rome to
seek provision for their journey to Macedonia, there met h