14.  Was Cassius equally successful?

15.  What did he do in his extremity, and what effect had it on Brutus?

16.  Did Brutus attempt to recover the victory?

17.  What followed?

18.  Were his intentions agreeable to his troops, and what was the consequence?

19.  What decided the victory against him?

20.  What orders were issued by the Triumviri or this occasion?

21.  By whom was his deliverance attempted?

22.  How did he accomplish this?

23.  What was the consequence?

24.  Relate the circumstances of their interview?

25.  What happened to Brutus in the mean time?

26.  How did he attempt to gain intelligence, and what followed his disappointment?

27.  Relate the manner of his death?

SECTION VI.

  But anxious cares already seized the queen;
  She fed within her veins a flame unseen: 
  The hero’s valour, acts, and birth, inspire
  Her soul with love, and fan the secret fire.—­Dryden.

1.  From the moment of Brutus’s death, the Trium’viri began to act as sovereigns, and to divide the Roman dominions among them as their own by right of conquest. 2.  However, though there were apparently three who participated all power, yet, in fact, only two were actually possessed of it, since Lep’idus was admitted at first merely to curb the mutual jealousy of Antony and Augustus, and was possessed neither of interest in the army, nor authority among the people. 3.  Their earliest care was to punish those whom they had formerly marked for vengeance.  Horten’sius, Dru’sus, and Quintil’ius Va’rus, all men of the first rank in the commonwealth, either killed themselves or were slain.  A senator and his son were ordered to cast lots for their lives, but both refused; the father voluntarily gave himself up to the executioner, and the son stabbed himself before his face.  Another begged to have the rites of burial after his death:  to which Augus’tus replied, “that he would soon find a grave in the vultures that would devour him.” 4.  But chiefly the people lamented to see the head of Brutus sent to Rome to be thrown at the foot of Caesar’s statue.  His ashes, however, were sent to his wife Portia, Cato’s daughter, who, following the examples of both her husband and father, killed herself, by swallowing coals. 5.  It is observed, that of all those who had a hand in the death of Caesar, not one died a natural death.

6.  The power of the Triumviri being thus established upon the ruin of the commonwealth, they now began to think of enjoying that homage to which they had aspired. 7.  Antony went into Greece to receive the flattery of that refined people, and spent some time at A’thens, conversing with the philosophers, and assisting at their disputes in person.

[Illustration:  Antony with Cleopatra In Egypt]