but that he could not pass over Brutus.  And on one occasion when some persons were calumniating Brutus to him, at a time when the conspiracy was really forming, he would not listen to them, but touching his body with his hand he said to the accusers, “Brutus waits[597] for this dry skin,” by which he intended to signify that Brutus was worthy of the power for his merits, but for the sake of the power would not be ungrateful and a villain.  Now, those who were eager for the change and who looked up to him alone, or him as the chief person, did not venture to speak with him on the subject, but by night they used to fill the tribunal and the seat on which he sat when discharging his functions as praetor with writings, most of which were to this purport, “You are asleep, Brutus,” and “You are not Brutus.”  By which Cassius,[598] perceiving that his ambition was somewhat stirred, urged him more than he had done before, and pricked him on; and Cassius himself had also a private grudge against Caesar for the reasons which I have mentioned in the Life of Brutus.  Indeed Caesar suspected Cassius, and he once said to his friends, “What think ye is Cassius aiming at? for my part, I like him not over much, for he is over pale.”  On the other hand it is said that when a rumour reached him, that Antonius and Dolabella were plotting, he said, “I am not much afraid of these well-fed,[599] long-haired fellows, but I rather fear those others, the pale and thin,” meaning Cassius and Brutus.

LXIII.  But it appears that destiny is not so much a thing that gives no warning as a thing that cannot be avoided, for they say that wondrous signs and appearances presented themselves.  Now, as to lights in the skies and sounds by night moving in various directions and solitary birds descending into the Forum, it is perhaps not worth while recording these with reference to so important an event:  but Strabo[600] the Philosopher relates that many men all of fire were seen contending against one another, and that a soldier’s slave emitted a great flame from his hand and appeared to the spectators to be burning, but when the flame went out, the man had sustained no harm; and while Caesar himself was sacrificing the heart of the victim could not be found, and this was considered a bad omen, for naturally an animal without a heart cannot exist.  The following stories also are told by many; that a certain seer warned him to be on his guard against great danger on that day of the month of March, which the Romans call the Ides;[601] and when the day had arrived, as Caesar was going to the Senate-house, he saluted the seer and jeered him saying, “Well, the Ides of March are come;” but the seer mildly replied, “Yes, they are come, but they are not yet over.”  The day before, when Marcus Lepidus was entertaining him, he chanced to be signing some letters, according to his habit, while he was reclining at table; and the conversation having turned on what kind of death was the best, before any one could give an opinion