[-48-] This Caesar, then, as soon as he had conciliated the soldiers and enslaved the senate, turned himself to avenging his father’s murder.  As he was afraid of somehow causing an upheaval among the populace in the pursuit of this business he did not make known his intention until he had seen to the payment of the bequests made to them.  When they had been made docile by means of the money, although it belonged to the public funds and had been collected on the pretext of war, then at length he began to follow up the assassins.  In order that this procedure of his might not appear to be characterized by violence but by justice, he proposed a law about their trial and tried the cases in their absence.  The majority of them were out of town and some even held governorships over provinces.  Those who were present also did not come forward, by reason of fear, and withdrew unobserved.  Consequently they were convicted by default, and not only those who had been the actual murderers of Caesar and their fellow-conspirators, but many others who so far from plotting against Caesar, had not even been in the city at the time.  This action was directed chiefly against Sextus Pompey.  The latter though he had had no share whatever in the attack was nevertheless condemned because he had been an enemy.  Those adjudged guilty were debarred from fire and water and their property was confiscated.  The provinces,—­not only those which some of them were governing, but all the rest,—­were committed to the friends of Caesar.

[-49-] Among those held liable was also Publius Servilius Casca, the tribune.  He had suspected Caesar’s purpose in advance, before he entered the city, and had quietly slipped away.  For this act he was at once removed from his office, on the charge of having left the city contrary to precedent, by the populace convened by his colleague Publius Titius; and in this way he was condemned.  When Titius not long after died, the proverbial fate that had been observed from of old was once more in evidence.  No one up to that time who had expelled a colleague had lived the year out:  but first Brutus after the expulsion of Collatinus died in his turn, then Gracchus was stabbed after expelling Octavius, and Cinna who put Marullus and Flavus out of the way not long after perished.  This has been the general experience.

Now the assassins of Caesar had many accusers who were anxious to ingratiate themselves with his son, and many who were persuaded so to act by the rewards offered.  They received money from the estate of the convicted man and the latter’s honors and office, if he had any, and exemption from further service in the army, applicable to themselves and their children and grandchildren.  Of the jurors the majority voted against the accused out of fear of Caesar and a wish to please him, generally hinting that they were justified in doing this.  Some cast their votes in consideration of the law enacted about punishing the culprits, and others in consideration of the arms of Caesar.  And one, Silicius Corona, a senator, voted outright to acquit Marcus Brutus.  He made a great boast of this at the time and secretly received approval from the rest:  that he was not immediately put to death gained for Caesar a great reputation for toleration, but later he was executed as the result of a proscription.