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A little while afterwards, however, when Caesar came, the other wretches paid the penalty for their crime and perished wretchedly; as for Theodotus, after borrowing from Fortune enough time for a wandering, destitute, and inglorious life, he did not escape the notice of Brutus, who at this time traversed Asia, but was brought to him and punished, and won more fame for his death than for his life.

He therefore found fault with Brutus on the ground that he was too observant of law and justice at a time which demanded a policy of kindness. But Brutus bade him remember the Ides of March, on which they had slain Caesar, not because he was himself plundering everybody, but because he enabled others to do this;

since, if there is any good excuse for neglecting justice, it had been better for us to endure the friends of Caesar than to suffer our own to do wrong. “For in the one case,” said he, “we should have had the reputation of cowardice merely; but now, in addition to our toils and perils, we are deemed unjust.” Such were the principles of Brutus.

Plucking up courage to question it, “Who art thou,” said he, “of gods or men, and what is thine errand with me?” Then the phantom answered “I am thy evil genius, Brutus, and thou shalt see me at Philippi.” And Brutus, undisturbed, said: “I shall see thee.”

And one thing alone brought ruin to their cause, namely, that Brutus thought Cassius victorious and did not go to his aid, while Cassius thought Brutus dead and did not wait for his aid; since Messala considers it a certain proof of the victory that he captured three eagles and many standards from the enemy, while they took nothing. ¶ As Brutus was returning from his victory, the camp of Caesar having been already destroyed, he was amazed not to see the tent of Cassius towering above the others, as usual, nor the other tents in their wonted place; for most of them had been demolished at once when the enemy burst in.

At this some of the bystanders burst out laughing, but Publius Casca, the one who first smote Caesar, said: “It is not meet for us to celebrate the funeral rites of Cassius with jests and mirth; and thou, Brutus, wilt show what esteem thou hast for the memory of that general according as thou punishest or shieldest those who will abuse and revile him.”

As for this Strato Messala, the comrade of Brutus, after a reconciliation with Octavius, once found occasion to introduce him to his new master, and said, with a burst of tears: “This is the man, O Caesar, who did the last kind office for my dear Brutus.” Accordingly, Strato was kindly received by Octavius, who, in his subsequent labours, and especially at the battle of Actium, found him, as well as other Greeks, a brave partisan.

And it is said that Messala himself was once praised by Octavius because, though at Philippi he had been most hostile to him and Antony for the sake of Brutus, at Actium he had been a most zealous adherent of his; whereupon Messala said: “Indeed, O Caesar, I have ever been on the better and juster side.”

When Antony found Brutus lying dead, he ordered the body to be wrapped in the most costly of his own robes and afterwards, on hearing that the robe had been stolen, put the thief to death. The ashes of Brutus he sent home to his mother Servilia.

Plutarch, Life of Caesar

With him he tarried a short time, and then, on his voyage back, was captured, near the island Pharmacusa, by pirates, who already at that time controlled the sea with large armaments and countless small vessels.

But since the praetor cast longing eyes on their money, which was no small sum, and kept saying that he would consider the case of the captives at his leisure, Caesar left him to his own devices, went to Pergamum, took the robbers out of prison, and crucified them all, just as he had often warned them on the island that he would do, when they thought he was joking.

After his return to Rome he impeached Dolabella for maladministration of his province, and many of the cities of Greece supplied him with testimony. Dolabella, it is true, was acquitted, but Caesar, in return for the zealous efforts of the Greeks in his behalf, served as their advocate when they prosecuted Publius Antonius for corruption before Marcus Lucullus, the praetor of Macedonia.

And he was so effective that Antonius appealed to the tribunes at Rome, alleging that he could not have a fair trial in Greece against Greeks. At Rome, moreover, Caesar won a great and brilliant popularity by his eloquence as an advocate, and much good will from the common people for the friendliness of his manners in intercourse with them, since he was ingratiating beyond his years.

After the funeral of his wife, he went out to Spain as quaestor under Vetus, one of the praetors, whom he never ceased to hold in high esteem, and whose son, in turn, when he himself was praetor, he made his quaestor. After he had served in this office, he married for his third wife Pompeia, having already by Cornelia a daughter who was afterwards married to Pompey the Great.