Searching for “=+Caesar -Cicero”

Meanwhile Caesar and Antony removed the praetors and the consuls, although it was now near the close of the year, and appointed others instead, caring little that these would remain in office but a few days.

and the festival that had been vowed for the completion of the war against the assassins of Caesar was celebrated by the consuls. The duties belonging to the college called the Septemviri were performed by the pontifices, since no member of the college was present; this was also done on many other occasions afterwards.

Besides these events which took place that year Caesar gave a public funeral to Sphaerus, who had been his attendant in childhood and had been given his freedom. Also he put to death Salvidienus Rufus, whom he suspected of having plotted against him.

This man was of most obscure origin, and once while he was tending his flocks a flame had issued from his head; but he had been so greatly advanced by Caesar as to be made consul without even being a member of the senate, and his brother who died before him had been laid to rest across the Tiber, after a bridge had been constructed for this very purpose.

But nothing in the life of man is lasting, and he was finally accused in the senate by Caesar himself and slain as an enemy both of him and of the entire people; thanksgivings were offered for his downfall and furthermore the care of the city was committed to the triumvirs with the customary admonition “that it should suffer no harm.”

In the year preceding this, men belonging to the order of knights had slaughtered wild beasts at the games in the Circus on the occasion of the Ludi Apollinares, and an intercalary day had been inserted, contrary to the rule, in order that the first day of the succeeding year should not coincide with the market held every nine days—a clash which had always been strictly guarded against from very early times. Naturally the day had to be subtracted again later, in order that the calendar should run according to the system devised by the former Caesar.

and certain further taxes were imposed by them, because the expenditures proved far greater than the budget made in the time of the former Caesar. For though they were expending vast sums for themselves and especially upon the soldiers, the only thing they were ashamed of was that the expenditures they were making were contrary to precedent.

For example, when Caesar now for the first time shaved off his beard, he held a magnificent entertainment himself besides granting all the other citizens a festival at public expense. He also kept his chin smooth afterwards, like the rest; for he was already beginning to be enamoured of Livia also, and for this reason divorced Scribonia the very day she bore him a daughter.

These were the acts of Caesar and Antony at home; with Sextus they first reached an understanding through their associates as to how and on what terms they could effect a reconciliation, and later they themselves conferred with him near Misenum. The two took their station on the land and Sextus not far from where they were on a mound that had been constructed in the sea, with water all around it, for the purpose of securing his safety.

The compact was made upon these conditions, that the slaves who had deserted should be free and that all those who had been banished should be restored, except Caesar’s assassins. They merely pretended, of course, to exclude the last-named, since in reality some of them also were about to be restored; indeed, Sextus himself was reputed to have been one of them.

After this the leaders as well as the rest received and entertained one another, first Sextus on his ship and then Caesar and Antony on the shore; for Sextus so far surpassed them in military strength that he would not disembark to meet them on the mainland until they had gone aboard his ship.

he uttered a jest in the happiest manner, saying that he was entertaining them in the Carinae; for this is also the name for the keels of ships. Nevertheless, he did not act toward them in any way as if he recalled the past with bitterness, and on the following day he was not only feasted in turn but also betrothed his daughter to Marcus Marcellus, Caesar’s nephew.

but was afterwards captured by Demetrius, a freedman of the former Caesar, who had at this time been assigned to Cyprus by Antony; for Demetrius, learning that Labienus was in hiding, made a search for him and arrested him.

And he obtained a triumph in spite of the fact that Spain had been assigned to Caesar; for those in power could grant the honours at will to those who served as their lieutenants. The gold customarily given by the cities for the triumph Calvinus took from the Spanish towns alone, and of it he spent only a part on the festival, but the greater portion on the Regia.

This had been burned down, and he now rebuilt and dedicated it, adorning it splendidly with various objects and with statues in particular, which he asked Caesar to send him, intimating that he would give them back. And when asked for them later, he did not return them, excusing himself by a witticism.