and was not easily calmed.  Late in the day at last they gradually began to take courage and became quiet, as no one was killed or arrested. [-21-] When they met in the assembly the assassins had much to say against Caesar and much in favor of the democracy, and they bade the people take courage and not expect any harm.  They had killed him, they declared, not to secure power or any other advantage, but in order that they might be free and independent and be governed rightly.  By speaking such words they calmed the majority, especially since they injured no one.  Fearing for all that that somebody might concert measures against them the conspirators ascended the Capitoline with the avowed intention of offering prayer to the gods, and there they spent the day and night.  And at evening they were joined by some of the other prominent men who had not shared in the plot, but were anxious, when they saw the perpetrators praised, to secure the glory of it, as well as the prizes which those concerned expected.  With great justice the affair happened to turn out the opposite way:  they did not secure any reputation for the deed because they had not been partakers of it in any way, but they shared the danger which fell upon the ones who committed it just as much as if they themselves had been the plotters.

[-22-] Seeing this, Dolabella likewise did not see fit to keep quiet, but entered upon the consular office though it did not yet belong to him, and after a short speech to the people on the situation ascended the Capitol.  While affairs were in this condition Lepidus, learning what had taken place, by night occupied the Forum with his soldiers and at dawn delivered a speech against the assassins.  Antony immediately after Caesar’s death had fled, casting away his robe of office in order to escape notice, and had concealed himself through the night.  When, however, he ascertained that the assassins were on the Capitol and Lepidus in the Forum, he assembled the senate in the precinct of Tellus and brought forward the business of the hour for deliberation.  Some said one thing, some another, as each of them thought about it:  Cicero, whose advice they followed, spoke to this effect:—­

[-23-] “On every occasion I think no one ought to say anything merely for the sake of winning favor or to show his spite, but to reveal just what the man in each case thinks to be the best.  We demand that those who are praetors or consuls shall do everything from upright motives, and if they make any errors we demand an account from them even if their slip was accidental; and it will be unbearable if in debates, where we are complete masters of our own opinion, we shall abandon the common welfare with a view to private advantage.  For this reason, Conscript Fathers, I have always thought that I ought to advise you on all matters with simplicity and justice, but especially under the present circumstances, when, if without being over-captious we come to an agreement,