16.  As soon as the conspirators had despatched Caesar, they retired to the Capitol, and guarded its accesses by a body of gladiators which Brutus had in pay.

17.  The friends of the late dictator now began to find that this was the time for coming into greater power than before, and for satisfying their ambition under the pretence of promoting justice:  of this number was Antony. 18.  He was a man of moderate abilities, of excessive vices, ambitious of power only because it gave his pleasures a wider range to riot in; but skilled in war, to which he had been trained from his youth.[5] He was consul for this year, and resolved, with Lep’idus, who like himself was fond of commotions, to seize this opportunity of gaining a power which Caesar had died for usurping.  Lep’idus, therefore, took possession of the Forum,[6] with a band of soldiers at his devotion; and Antony, being consul, was permitted to command them. 19.  Their first step was to possess themselves of Caesar’s papers and money, and the next to assemble the senate. 20.  Never had this august assembly been convened upon so delicate an occasion, as to determine whether Caesar had been a legal magistrate, or a tyrannical usurper; and whether those who killed him merited rewards or punishments.  Many of them had received all their promotions from Caesar, and had acquired large fortunes in consequence of his appointments:  to vote him an usurper, therefore, would be to endanger their property; and yet, to vote him innocent, might endanger the state.  In this dilemma they seemed willing to reconcile extremes; they approved all the acts of Caesar, and yet granted a general pardon to the conspirators.

21.  This decree was very far from giving Antony satisfaction, as it granted security to a number of men who were the avowed enemies of tyranny, and who would be foremost in opposing his schemes of restoring absolute power.  As, therefore, the senate had ratified all Caesar’s acts without distinction, he formed a plan of making him rule when dead as imperiously as he had done when living. 22.  Being possessed of Caesar’s books of accounts, he so far gained over his secretary as to make him insert whatever he thought proper.  By these means, great sums of money, which Caesar would never have bestowed, were distributed among the people; and every man who had any seditious designs against the government was there sure to find a gratuity. 23.  Things being in this situation, Antony demanded of the senate that Caesar’s funeral obsequies should be performed.  This they could not decently forbid, as they had never declared him a tyrant:  accordingly, the body was brought forth into the Forum with the utmost solemnity; and Antony, who charged himself with these last duties of friendship, began his operations upon the passions of the people by the prevailing motives of private interest. 24.  He first read to them Caesar’s will, in which he made Octavius, his sister’s grandson, his heir, permitting him to take the name