put the crown away, and the shout that followed could not be misunderstood.  It was offered again, and a few applauded as before, while a second rejection drew forth the same hearty approval.  His statues were found with crowns upon them.  These two tribunes removed, and at the same time ordered the imprisonment of the men who had just saluted him as king.  The people were delighted, but Caesar had them degraded from their office.  The general dissatisfaction thus caused induced the conspirators to proceed.  Warnings, some of which we may suppose to have come from those who were in the secret, were not wanting.  By these he was wrought upon so much that he had resolved not to stir from his house on the day which he understood was to be fatal to him; but Decimus Brutus, who was in the plot, dissuaded him from his purpose.  The scene that followed may be told once again in the words in which Plutarch describes it:  “Artemidoros, of Cnidus, a teacher of Greek, who had thus come to be intimate with some of the associates of Brutus, had become acquainted to a great extent with what was in progress, and had drawn up a statement of the information which he had to give.  Seeing that Caesar gave the papers presented to him to the slaves with him, he came up close and said, ’Caesar, read this alone and that quickly:  it contains matters that nearly concern yourself.’  Caesar took it, and would have read it, but was hindered by the crowd of persons that thronged to salute him.  Keeping it in his hand, he passed into the House.  In the place to which the Senate had been summoned stood a statue of Pompey.  Cassius is said to have looked at it and silently invoked the dead man’s help, and this though he was inclined to the skeptical tenets of Epicurus.  Meanwhile Antony, who was firmly attached to Caesar and a man of great strength, was purposely kept in conversation outside the senate-house by Decimus Brutus.  As Caesar entered, the Senate rose to greet him.  Some of the associates of Brutus stood behind his chair; others approached him in front, seemingly joining their entreaties to those which Cimber Tullius was addressing to him on behalf of his brother.  He sat down and rejected the petition with a gesture of disapproval at their urgency.  Tullius then seized his toga with both hands and dragged it from his neck.  This was the signal for attack.  Casca struck him first on the neck.  The wound was not fatal, nor even serious, so agitated was the striker at dealing the first blow in so terrible a deed.  Caesar turned upon him, seized the dagger, and held it fast, crying at the same time in Latin, ’Casca, thou villain, what art thou about?’ while Casca cried in Greek to his brother, ’Brother, help!’ Those senators who were not privy to the plot were overcome with horror.  They could neither cry nor help:  they dared not even speak.  The conspirators were standing round Caesar each with a drawn sword in his hand; whithersoever he turned his eyes he saw a weapon ready to strike, and he struggled