at an early age: Alexander the Great, Hannibal,
Frederick of Prussia, and Napoleon Bonaparte, gained some of their most
brilliant victories under the age of 30; but Caesar, from the age of 23
to 40, had seen nothing of war, and, notwithstanding, appears all at
once as one of the greatest generals that the world has ever seen.

[Illustration: Statue of a Roman, representing the Toga.]

[Footnote 69: The crossing of this stream was in reality a declaration
of war against the Republic, and later writers relate that upon arriving
at the Rubicon Caesar long hesitated whether he should take this
irrevocable step, and that, after pondering many hours, he at length
exclaimed, "The die is cast," and plunged into the river. But there is
not a word of this in Caesar's own narrative.]

[Footnote 70: In reality on the 6th of June.]

[Illustration: M. Antonius.]

CHAPTER XXXVI.

FROM THE DEATH OF CAESAR TO THE BATTLE OF PHILIPPI. B.C. 44-42.

When the bloody deed had been finished, Brutus and the other
conspirators rushed into the forum, proclaiming that they had killed the
Tyrant, and calling the people to join them; but they met with no
response, and, finding alone averted looks, they retired to the Capitol.
Here they were joined by Cicero, who had not been privy to the
conspiracy, but was now one of the first to justify the murder. Meantime
the friends of Caesar were not idle. M. Lepidus, the Master of the Horse,
who was in the neighborhood of the city, marched into the Campus Martius
in the night; and M. Antony hastened to the house of the Dictator, and
took possession of his papers and treasures. But both parties feared to
come to blows. A compromise was agreed to; and at a meeting of the
Senate it was determined that Caesar's murderers should not be punished,
but, on the other hand, that all his regulations should remain in force,
that the provisions of his will should be carried into effect, and that
he should be honored with a public funeral. The conspirators descended
from the Capitol; and, as a proof of reconciliation, Cassius supped with
Antony and Brutus with Lepidus.

This reconciliation was only a pretense. Antony aspired to succeed to
the power of the Dictator; and, to rouse the popular fury against the
conspirators, Caesar's will was immediately made public. He left as his
heir his great-nephew Octavius, a youth of 18, the son of Atia, the
daughter of his sister Julia. He bequeathed considerable legac