Cicero - Anthony Everitt [156]
Antony, in conversation with Trebonius in the colonnade outside, quickly realized what had happened. (Perhaps Trebonius told him.) He changed into a slave’s clothes and went to ground. Appian reports that even Caesar’s official lictors ran away, and soon the dead Dictator was alone. His body lay undisturbed for some hours.
The assassins wound their togas around their arms to serve as shields and, with bloodstained swords in their hands, ran out into the open, shouting that they had destroyed a tyrant and a king. One of them carried a freedom cap (a skullcap worn by freed slaves) on a spear. They were joined by a handful of Senators, who decided to seize the hour. Among them was the youthful Dolabella, Deputy Consul to the Dictator and now, he supposed, Consul. (He was wrong in this, for his appointment needed formal approval, which was given later.)
It did not take long for panic to ensue. Members of the public, stampeding from the theater and its environs, shouted: “Run! Bolt your doors. Bolt your doors.” The conspirators, followed by their gladiators and some servants, made their way through the Field of Mars to the Forum, still shouting for Cicero. News of what had happened, or at least that something terrible had happened, spread quickly. Nicolaus, commented: “The city looked as if it had been captured by an enemy.”
Brutus and those with him tried their best to calm the crowds in the Forum, but there was little they could do and so they climbed up the Capitoline Hill, where they could beat off any attackers. They were able to catch their breath and plan their next move. Looking down later in the day, they would have been able to see a small, sad procession cross the Forum. Three slave boys, the only members of Caesar’s entourage not to have fled, had loaded the dead body into the Dictator’s litter and were carrying it home. AS it passed through the streets it was greeted with cries of lamentation from people standing on housetops. The curtains of the litter were drawn back; the dead man’s face could be seen covered in blood and his arms were hanging down. When the body arrived in the Forum and was taken to the State House at the far end of the square from the Capitol, Calpurnia and a crowd of wailing women and slaves came out to meet it.
Slowly the public mood quieted, as it became clear that no further deaths were taking place and that there would be no looting. In the afternoon Brutus came down into the Forum to address the People. Before he did so, arrangements were made to ensure that a suitably friendly audience was recruited. This did not prove difficult, for much of the urban population was unemployed and attendance could be bought. Also, Rome was full of demobilized veterans, camped in temple precincts and sanctuaries, who were waiting for transport to the new colonies Caesar had founded in Italy and abroad. They were not averse to making a few sesterces on the side.
Despite the fact that many of those in the Forum had been bribed, they lacked the courage to show their approval of what had been done. There was still a widespread mood of shock and uncertainty. However, the majority calculated that its best interests lay in stability. People were willing to accept a peaceful resolution of the crisis and an amnesty for the killers.
Brutus took another precautionary measure. When he, Cassius and others arrived in the Forum, they were accompanied by Dolabella, now wearing a Consular toga and surrounded by lictors; this lent the occasion an official air and suggested that the orderly business of government was being maintained.
In their speeches, Brutus and Cassius avoided triumphalism. They said they had acted from disinterested motives. They had no intention of seizing power, for their only aim was to preserve their freedom and independence. The crowd was attentive and reasonably