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40yet as regards Caesar, they not only did not consider him any longer as deserving of any great reward, but even undertook to overthrow him by giving to Decimus all the prizes for which Caesar was hoping. For they voted in Decimus’ honour not only sacrifices but also a triumph, and gave him charge of the rest of the war and of the legions, including those of Vibius. 2Upon the soldiers who had been besieged with him they decreed that praise should be bestowed and likewise all the other rewards which had formerly been promised to Caesar’s men, although these troops had contributed nothing to the victory, but had merely beheld it from the walls. They honoured Aquila, who had died in the battle, with a statue, and restored to his heirs the money which he had expended from his own purse for the equipment of Decimus’ troops. 3In a word, all that had been done for Caesar to thwart Antony was now voted to others to thwart Caesar himself. And to the end that, no matter how much he might wish it, he should not be able to do any harm, they arrayed all his personal enemies against him. Thus to Sextus Pompey they entrusted the fleet, to Marcus Brutus Macedonia, and to Cassius Syria together with the war against Dolabella. 4They would certainly have gone further and deprived him of the forces that he had, had they not been afraid to vote this openly, because they knew that his soldiers were devoted to him. But they attempted, even so, to set them at variance with one another and with Caesar himself. 5For they wished neither to praise and honour them all, for fear of raising their spirits still higher, nor to dishonour and neglect them all, for fear of alienating them the more and as a consequence forcing them to come to an agreement with one another. 6Hence they adopted a middle course, and by praising some of them and not others, by allowing some to wear garlands of olive at the festivals and others not, and, furthermore, by voting to some of them ten thousand sesterces and to others not a copper, they hoped to set them at odds with each other and consequently to weaken them.
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