[Footnote 604:  Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus was the son of Decimus Junius Brutus, Consul B.C. 77, and grandson of Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus, Consul B.C. 138.  He was adopted by Aulus Postumius Albinus, Consul, B.C. 99, whence he took the name Albinus.  He served under Caesar in Gaul, during which campaign he destroyed the fleet of the Veneti. (Gallic War, iii. 12, &c.) Decimus Brutus was a great favourite with Caesar, who by his will placed him in the second degree of succession; he also gave him the province of Cisalpine Gaul, which Brutus held after Caesar’s death, and appointed him to be consul for B.C. 42.  In the year B.C. 43, after M. Antonius had united himself with M. Lepidus, the governor of Gallia Narbonensis, and L. Munatius Plancus and Asinius Pollio had also joined M. Antonius, Decimus Brutus attempted to make his escape into Macedonia to Marcus Brutus; but he was overtaken in the Alps by the cavalry of Antonius, and put to death after abjectly praying for mercy.  This was the just punishment of a treacherous friend who helped Caesar to the supreme power and then betrayed him (Vell.  Paterculus, ii. 61).  Like many other men, he did well enough when he was directed by others, but when he was put in command, he lost his head and threw away the opportunities that he had.  There are extant several of his letters to Ciecro and letters of Cicero to him. (Dion Cassius, 43. c. 53, and the references in the notes; Drumann, Geschichte Roms, Junii.)]

[Footnote 605:  It was usual for the Romans in their wills to substitute an heres, one or more (in the Roman sense), to take the property in case the person who was first named in the will for any reason did not take it.  Caesar’s first heres was his great nephew, C. Octavius, afterwards Augustus.]

[Footnote 606:  It was the general opinion that some roll or writing was put into Caesar’s hands, which informed him of the conspiracy; but, as is usual in such cases, there were different statements current about the particulars of this circumstance.  Compare Dion Cassius, 44. c. 18.]

[Footnote 607:  According to Dion Cassius (41. c. 52) the Senate was assembled in the curia ([Greek:  synedrion]), which Pompeius had built.]

[Footnote 608:  The two sects of Greek philosophy that had most adherents among the Romans were those of the Epicureans and the Stoics.  Cassius, as an Epicurean, would have no faith in any superhuman powers; but in the moments of danger a man’s speculative principles give way to the common feelings of all mankind.  I have kept Plutarch’s word “enthusiasm,” which is here to be understood not in our sense, but in the Greek sense of a person under some superhuman influence.]

[Footnote 609:  This is a mistake of Plutarch, who has stated the fact correctly in his Life of Brutus (c. 17).  It was Caius Trebonius who kept Antonius engaged in talk, as we learn from Dion Cassius (44. c. 10), Appianus (Civil War, ii. 117), and Cicero, who in a Letter to Trebonius (Ad Diversos, x. 28) complains that Trebonius had taken Antonius aside, and so saved his life.]