many of the magistrates, run about the streets
naked, and, by way of diversion, strike all they meet with leathern
thongs with the hair upon them. Numbers of women of the first quality
put themselves in their way, and present their hands for stripes--as
scholars do to a master--being persuaded that the pregnant gain an easy
delivery by it, and that the barren are enabled to conceive. Caesar wore
a triumphal robe that day, and seated himself in a golden chair upon the
_rostra_, to see the ceremony.

Antony ran among the rest, in compliance with the rules of the festival,
for he was consul. When he came into the Forum, and the crowd had made
way for him, he approached Caesar, and offered him a diadem wreathed with
laurel. Upon this some plaudits were heard, but very feeble, because
they proceeded only from persons placed there on purpose. Caesar refused
it, and then the plaudits were loud and general. Antony presented it
once more, and few applauded his officiousness; but when Caesar rejected
it again, the applause again was general. Caesar, undeceived by his
second trial, rose up and ordered the diadem to be consecrated in the
Capitol.

A few days after, his statues were seen adorned with royal diadems; and
Flavius and Marullus, two of the tribunes, went and tore them off. They
also found out the persons who first saluted Caesar king, and committed
them to prison. The people followed with cheerful acclamations, and
called them Brutuses, because Brutus was the man who expelled the kings
and put the government in the hands of the senate and people. Caesar,
highly incensed at their behavior, deposed the tribunes, and by way of
reprimand to them, as well as insult to the people, called them several
times _Brutes_ and _Cumceans_.

Upon this, many applied to Marcus Brutus, who, by the father's side, was
supposed to be a descendant of that ancient Brutus, and whose mother was
of the illustrious house of the Servilli. He was also nephew and
son-in-law to Cato. No man was more inclined than he to lift his hand
against monarchy, but he was withheld by the honors and favors he had
received from Caesar, who had not only given him his life after the
defeat of Pompey at Pharsalia, and pardoned many of his friends at his
request, but continued to honor him with his confidence. That very year
he had procured him the most honorable praetorship, and he had named him
for the consulship four years after, in preference to Cassius, who was