called by name; Antony had hurried away to exchange his consular
robes for the garb of a slave. Disappointed of obtaining the sanction of
the senate, the conspirators sallied out into the Forum to win the ear
of the people. But here, too, they were disappointed. Not knowing what
massacre might be in store, every man had fled to his own house; and in
vain the conspirators paraded the Forum, holding up their blood-stained
weapons and proclaiming themselves the liberators of Rome.
Disappointment was not their only feeling: they were not without fear.
They knew that Lepidus, being on the eve of departure for his province
of Narbonnese Gaul, had a legion encamped on the island of the Tiber:
and if he were to unite with Antony against them, Caesar would quickly be
avenged. In all haste, therefore, they retired to the Capitol. Meanwhile
three of Caesar's slaves placed their master's body upon a stretcher and
carried it to his house on the south side of the Forum, with one arm
dangling from the unsupported corner. In this condition the widowed
Calpurnia received the lifeless clay of him who had lately been
sovereign of the world.

Lepidus moved his troops to the Campus Martius. But Antony had no
thoughts of using force; for in that case probably Lepidus would have
become master of Rome. During the night he took possession of the
treasure which Caesar had collected to defray the expenses of his
Parthian campaign, and persuaded Calpurnia to put into his hands all the
dictator's papers. Possessed of these securities, he barricaded his
house on the Carinae, and determined to watch the course of events.

In the evening Cicero, with other senators, visited the self-styled
liberators in the Capitol. They had not communicated their plot to the
orator, through fear (they said) of his irresolute counsels; but now
that the deed was done, he extolled it as a godlike act. Next morning,
Dolabella, Cicero's son-in-law, whom Caesar had promised should be his
successor in the consulship, assumed the consular fasces and joined the
liberators; while Cinna, son of the old Marian leader and therefore
brother-in-law to Caesar, threw aside his praetorian robes, declaring he
would no longer wear the tyrant's livery. Dec. Brutus, a good soldier,
had taken a band of gladiators into pay, to serve as a bodyguard of the
liberators. Thus strengthened, they ventured again to descend into the
Forum. Brutus mounted the tribune, and addressed the people in a