LXVIII.  But when the will[616] of Caesar was opened and it was discovered that he had given to every Roman a handsome present, and they saw the body, as it was carried through the Forum, disfigured with the wounds, the multitude, no longer kept within the bounds of propriety and order, but heaping about the corpse benches, lattices and tables taken from the Forum, they set fire to it on the spot and burnt it; then taking the flaming pieces of wood they ran to the houses of the conspirators to fire them, and others ran about the city in all directions seeking for the men to seize and tear them in pieces.  But none of the conspirators came in their way, and they were all well protected.  One Cinna,[617] however, a friend of Caesar, happened, as it is said, to have had a strange dream the night before; for he dreamed that he was invited by Caesar to sup with him, and when he excused himself, he was dragged along by Caesar by the hand, against his will and making resistance the while.  Now, when he heard that the body of Caesar was burning in the Forum, he got up and went there out of respect, though he was somewhat alarmed at his dream and had a fever on him.  One of the multitude who saw Cinna told his name to another who was inquiring of him, and he again told it to a third, and immediately it spread through the crowd that this man was one of those who had killed Caesar; and indeed there was one of the conspirators who was named Cinna:  and taking this man to be him the people forthwith rushed upon him and tore him in pieces on the spot.  It was principally through alarm at this that the partisans of Brutus and Cassius after a few days left the city.  But what they did and suffered before they died is told in the Life of Brutus.[618] LXIX.  At the time of his death Caesar was full fifty-six years old, having survived Pompeius not much more than four years, and of the power and dominion which all through his life he pursued at so great risk and barely got at last, having reaped the fruit in name only, and with the glory of it the odium of the citizens.  Yet his great daemon,[619] which accompanied him through life, followed him even when he was dead, the avenger of his murder, through every land and sea hunting and tracking out his murderers till not one of them was left, and pursuing even those who in any way whatever had either put their hand to the deed or been participators in the plot.  Among human events the strangest was that which befell Cassius, for after his defeat at Philippi he killed himself with the same dagger that he had employed against Caesar; and among signs from heaven, there was the great comet, which appeared conspicuous for seven nights after Caesar’s assassination and then disappeared, and the obscuration of the splendour of the sun.  For during all that year the circle of the sun rose pale and without rays, and the warmth that came down from it was weak and feeble, so that the air as it moved was dark and heavy owing to the