en
him. One needs only to recall the names of Antony, Labienus, or Decimus
Brutus to realize the fact that Caesar remembered and rewarded the faithful
services of his followers. But Matius was Caesar's friend and nothing more,
not his master of the horse, as Antony was, nor his political and
financial heir, as Octavius was. In his loyalty to Caesar he sought for no
other reward than Caesar's friendship, and his services to him brought with
them their own return. Indeed, through his friend he suffered loss, for
one of Caesar's laws robbed him of a part of his estate, as he tells us,
but this experience did not lessen his affection. How different his
attitude was from that of others who professed a friendship for Caesar!
Some of them turned upon their leader and plotted against his life, when
disappointed in the favors which they had received at his hands, and
others, when he was murdered, used his name and his friendship for them to
advance their own ambitious designs. Antony and Octavius struggle with
each other to catch the reins of power which have fallen from his hands;
Dolabella, who seems to regard himself as an understudy of Caesar, plays a
serio-comic part in Rome in his efforts to fill the place of the dead
dictator; while Decimus Brutus hurries to the North to make sure of the
province which Caesar had given him.

From these men, animated by selfishness, by jealousy, by greed for gain,
by sentimentalism, or by hypocritical patriotism, Matius stands aloof,
and stands perhaps alone. For him the death of Caesar means the loss of a
friend, of a man in whom he believed. He can find no common point of
sympathy either with those who rejoice in the death of the tyrant, as
Cicero does, for he had not thought Caesar a tyrant, nor with those who use
the name of Caesar to conjure with. We have said that he accepted no
political office. He did accept an office, that of procurator, or
superintendent, of the public games which Caesar had vowed on the field of
Pharsalus, but which death had stepped in to prevent him from giving, and
it was in the pious fulfilment of this duty which he took upon himself
that he brought upon his head the anger of the "auctores libertatis," as
he ironically calls them. He had grieved, too, at the death of Caesar,
although "a man ought to rate the fatherland above a friend," as the
liberators said. Matius took little heed of this talk. He had known of it
from the outset, but it had not troubled him