Atticus.—­The times I lived in were so bad, and the conflict of parties had so little to do in reality with the love of the public, that I thought my virtue much safer and purer by avoiding than mixing in the fray.

Brutus.—­Possibly, in the dispute between Marius and Sylla, and even in that between Pompey and Caesar, a virtuous man might see so much to blame on both sides, and so much to fear, whichever faction should overcome the other, as to be justified in not engaging with either.  But let me say, without vanity, in the war which I waged against Antony and Octavius you could have nothing to blame, for I know you approved the principle upon which I killed Julius Caesar.  Nor had you anything to fear if our arms had succeeded, for you know that my intentions were upright and pure; nor was it doubtful that Cassius was as much determined as I to restore the Republic.  How could you, then, with any sense of virtue in your heart, maintain an indifference and neutrality between the deliverers and the tyrants of your country?

Atticus.—­My answer to this will necessarily require explanations, which my respect to the manes of Brutus makes me wish to avoid.

Brutus.—­In the other world I loved truth, and was desirous that all might speak it with freedom; but here even the tender ears of a tyrant are compelled to endure it.  If I committed any faults, or erred in my judgment, the calamities I have suffered are a punishment for it.  Tell me then, truly, and without fear of offending, what you think were my failings.

Atticus.—­You said that the principle upon which you killed Julius Caesar had my approbation.  This I do not deny; but did I ever declare, or give you reason to believe, that I thought it a prudent or well-timed act?  I had quite other thoughts.  Nothing ever seemed to me worse judged or worse timed; and these, Brutus, were my reasons.  Caesar was just setting out to make war on the Parthians.  This was an enterprise of no little difficulty and no little danger; but his unbounded ambition, and that restless spirit which never would suffer him to take any repose, did not intend to stop there.  You know very well (for he hid nothing from you) that he had formed a vast plan of marching, after he had conquered the whole Parthian Empire, along the coast of the Caspian Sea and the sides of Mount Caucasus into Scythia, in order to subdue all the countries that border on Germany, and Germany itself; from whence he proposed to return to Rome by Gaul.  Consider now, I beseech you, how much time the execution of this project required.  In some of his battles with so many fierce and warlike nations, the bravest of all the barbarians, he might have been slain; but, if he had not, disease, or age itself, might have ended his life before he could have completed such an immense undertaking.  He was, when you killed him, in his fifty-sixth year, and of an infirm constitution.