s, the
senators, consuls, and praetors, or the whole senate, in festal attire,
presented the decrees to him, and Caesar at the moment forgot to show his
respect for the senators; he did not rise from his _sella curulis_, but
received the decrees in an unceremonious manner. This want of politeness
was never forgiven by the persons who had not scrupled to make him their
master; for it had been expected that he would at least behave politely
and be grateful for such decrees.[78] Caesar himself had no design in the
act, which was merely the consequence of distraction or thoughtlessness;
but it made the senate his irreconcilable enemies. The affair with the
tribunes, moreover, had made a deep impression upon the people. We must,
however, remember that the people under such circumstances are most
sensible to anything affecting their honor, as we have seen at the
beginning of the French Revolution.

[Footnote 78: I have known an instance of a man of rank and influence
who could never forgive another man, who was by far his superior in
every respect, for having forgotten to take off his hat during a visit.]

In the year of Caesar's death, Brutus and Cassius were praetors. Both had
been generals under Pompey. Brutus' mother, Servilia, was a half-sister
of Cato, for after the death of her first husband Cato's mother had
married Servilius Caepio. She was a remarkable woman, but very immoral,
and unworthy of her son; not even the honor of her own daughter was
sacred to her. The family of Brutus derived its origin from L. Junius
Brutus, and from the time of its first appearance among the plebeians it
had had few men of importance to boast of. During the period subsequent
to the passing of the Licinian laws we meet with some Junii in the
Fasti, but not one of them acquired any great reputation. The family had
become reduced and almost contemptible. One M. Brutus in particular
disgraced his family by sycophancy in the time of Sulla and was
afterward killed in Gaul by Pompey. Although no Roman family belonged to
a more illustrious gens, yet Brutus was not by any means one of those
men who are raised by fortunate circumstances. The education, however,
which he received had a great influence upon him. His uncle Cato, whose
daughter Porcia he married--whether in Cato's lifetime or afterward is
doubtful--had initiated him from his early youth in the Stoic
philosophy, and had instilled into his mind a veneration for it, as
though it had be