Cicero - Anthony Everitt [151]
Nothing came of this démarche, but at some point in the months that followed individuals began meeting in small groups in one another’s houses and discussed various ideas of how and where the murder should be committed. Perhaps he could be attacked on the Holy Way, the street that led into the Forum. Or he could be ambushed during an election on the Field of Mars. Voters had to pass along a narrow bridge over a stream where the ballots were counted. Perhaps Caesar could be pushed off the bridge and pounced upon. The trouble with these schemes was that they would take place in public and there was always a risk that the assassins would themselves be assaulted or killed. For the time being these quiet conversations led nowhere and were overshadowed by the hyperactivity of the regime.
One of the leading conspirators was Caius Cassius Longinus. AS Quaestor he had taken charge of Syria after Crassus met his end at Carrhae and had scored a military success against the Parthians in 51, when Cicero had been governor of the neighboring province of Cilicia. An irascible man, he did not easily forget a grudge and fell out for a time with Brutus when the latter won a promotion at his expense. His contemporaries took the view that he opposed Caesar for personal reasons rather than on principle. According to Plutarch, he was furious when, during the civil war, Caesar came across a number of lions Cassius had acquired for use at some Games he was due to stage in Rome and confiscated them for his own purposes.
Yet there is also evidence that Cassius had a long-standing deeply felt aversion to arbitrary government: as a boy he had gone to the same school as Sulla’s son, Faustus. When Faustus bragged about his all-powerful father, Cassius lost his temper and beat him up. The two boys were questioned about the matter by Pompey, at the time one of Sulla’s lieutenants, and Cassius is reported to have been unrepentant. He said to Faustus: “Come on, Faustus, you dare repeat in front of this man what you said before, which made me angry, and I’ll smash your face in again!”
Gradually more and more people were drawn into the plot against Caesar and by the end at least sixty were involved. Their motives varied. While masquerading as principled tyrannicides or, as they called themselves, Freedom Fighters (liberatores), some in fact resented the deaths of family and friends in the civil war. For a few, the Dictator’s clemency and generosity was too much to bear, too insulting to their sense of dignity. Others were impressed by the political and social status of the leading conspirators; in particular Marcus Brutus, one of whose ancestors had led a celebrated uprising against the monarchy centuries before, was extremely influential in giving the enterprise respectability. And then there were those who had worked for Caesar a long time and felt they had not been adequately rewarded.
Meanwhile, the regime continued to entrench itself. Honors were poured on Caesar and statues of him began appearing all over the city. His ivory image was carried in the procession at the Games alongside those of the gods. Another was set up in the Temple of Romulus, the first King of Rome, in the Forum with the dedication “To the Invincible God.” His effigy was also placed on the Capitol, Rome’s citadel, next to those of the former kings of Rome.
AS an expression of the new spirit of harmony that he wished to project, Caesar re-erected statues of Pompey and other onetime political opponents in their old places. Cicero had the mot for the moment: “By his generous action, he has not just set up Pompey’s statues but ensured that his own remain safely in place.” Towards the end of 45 a final batch of honors was