§81Sed Caesari futura caedes euidentibus prodigiis denuntiata est.
But Caesar's impending murder was foretold by evident portents.
paucos ante menses, cum in colonia Capua deducti lege Iulia coloni ad extruendas uillas uetustissima sepulcra disicerent idque eo studiosius facerent, quod aliquantum uasculorum operis antiqui scrutantes reperiebant, tabula aenea in monimento, in quo dicebatur Capys conditor Capuae sepultus, inuenta est conscripta litteris uerbisque Graecis hac sententia: quandoque ossa Capyis detecta essent, fore ut illo prognatus manu consanguineorum necaretur magnisque mox Italiae cladibus uindicaretur.
A few months before, when the colonists settled at Capua under the Julian law were demolishing very ancient tombs to build country houses, and were doing this all the more eagerly because they found some vessels of ancient workmanship as they searched, a bronze tablet was found in a monument in which Capys, the founder of Capua, was said to have been buried, inscribed with Greek letters and words to this effect: that whenever the bones of Capys should be uncovered, it would come to pass that a descendant of his would be slain by the hands of his kinsmen, and soon after avenged by great disasters to Italy.
cuius rei, ne quis fabulosam aut commenticiam putet, auctor est Cornelius Balbus, familiarissimus Caesaris.
Lest anyone should think this story fabulous or fictitious, Cornelius Balbus, a very intimate friend of Caesar, is the authority for it.
proximis diebus equorum greges, quos in traiciendo Rubiconi flumini consecrarat ac uagos et sine custode dimiserat, comperit pertinacissime pabulo abstinere ubertimque flere.
In the days immediately preceding, he found that the herds of horses which he had consecrated when crossing the river Rubicon and had let loose to wander without a keeper, were most obstinately abstaining from food and weeping abundantly.
et immolantem haruspex Spurinna monuit, caueret periculum, quod non ultra Martias Idus proferretur.
And as he was sacrificing, the soothsayer Spurinna warned him to beware of danger, which would not be deferred beyond the Ides of March.
pridie autem easdem Idus auem regaliolum cum laureo ramulo Pompeianae curiae se inferentem uolucres uarii generis ex proximo nemore persecutae ibidem discerpserunt.
On the day before the same Ides, a bird called the kingbird, flying into the hall of Pompey with a sprig of laurel, was pursued and torn to pieces on the spot by birds of various kinds from a neighboring grove.
ea uero nocte, cui inluxit dies caedis, et ipse sibi uisus est per quietem interdum supra nubes uolitare, alias cum Ioue dextram iungere; et Calpurnia uxor imaginata est conlabi fastigium domus maritumque in gremio suo confodi; ac subito cubiculi fores sponte patuerunt.
On that very night, on which the day of his murder dawned, he himself seemed in his sleep at one time to be flying above the clouds, and at another to be clasping the right hand of Jupiter; and his wife Calpurnia dreamed that the pediment of the house fell, and that her husband was stabbed in her bosom; and suddenly the doors of the bedchamber flew open of their own accord.
Ob haec simul et ob infirmam ualitudinem diu cunctatus an se contineret et quae apud senatum proposuerat agere differret, tandem Decimo Bruto adhortante, ne frequentis ac iam dudum opperientis destitueret, quinta fere hora progressus est libellumque insidiarum indicem ab obuio quodam porrectum libellis ceteris, quos sinistra manu tenebat, quasi mox lecturus commiscuit.
For these reasons, as well as on account of his infirm health, he hesitated for a long time whether he should keep at home and defer what he had proposed to transact before the senate; but at last, Decimus Brutus exhorting him not to disappoint a full senate which had been long waiting for him, he went forth about the fifth hour. A paper giving information of the conspiracy, which was handed to him by one who met him on the way, he mingled with other papers which he held in his left hand, as if he would read them soon.
dein pluribus hostiis caesis, cum litare non posset, introiit curiam spreta religione Spurinnamque irridens et ut falsum arguens, quod sine ulla sua noxa Idus Martiae adessent: quanquam is uenisse quidem eas diceret, sed non praeterisse. §82assidentem conspirati specie officii circumsteterunt, ilicoque Cimber Tillius, qui primas partes susceperat, quasi aliquid rogaturus propius accessit renuentique et gestu in aliud tempus differenti ab utroque umero togam adprehendit: deinde clamantem: 'ista quidem uis est!' alter e Cascis auersum uulnerat paulum infra iugulum.
Then, after many victims had been slain, when he could not obtain favorable omens, he entered the senate-house, defying religion and laughing at Spurinna, and accusing him of falsehood because the Ides of March had come without any harm to him; though Spurinna said that they had indeed come, but had not passed. As he took his seat, the conspirators stood round him under color of paying their respects, and immediately Tillius Cimber, who had undertaken the chief part, came closer as if to ask some favor, and when Caesar refused and by a gesture deferred it to another time, he caught hold of his toga by both shoulders. Then, as Caesar cried out: 'This indeed is violence!' one of the Cascas stabbed him from behind, a little below the throat.
Caesar Cascae brachium arreptum graphio traiecit conatusque prosilire alio uulnere tardatus est; utque animaduertit undique se strictis pugionibus peti, toga caput obuoluit, simul sinistra manu sinum ad ima crura deduxit, quo honestius caderet etiam inferiore corporis parte uelata.
Caesar, seizing Casca's arm, pierced it with his stylus, and endeavoring to rush forward was stopped by another wound; and when he perceived that he was beset on all sides by drawn daggers, he muffled his head in his toga, and at the same time with his left hand drew down the skirt to his feet, that he might fall more decently, with the lower part of his body also covered.
atque ita tribus et uiginti plagis confossus est uno modo ad primum ictum gemitu sine uoce edito, etsi tradiderunt quidam Marco Bruto irruenti dixisse:
kai\ su\ te/knon; exanimis diffugientibus cunctis aliquamdiu iacuit, donec lecticae impositum, dependente brachio, tres seruoli domum rettulerunt.
And so he was pierced with three and twenty wounds, uttering only a single groan at the first stroke without any word, though some have delivered that he said to Marcus Brutus as he rushed upon him: 'You too, my child?' When all had fled, he lay lifeless for some time, until three young slaves put him on a litter and carried him home, with one arm hanging down.
nec in tot uulneribus, ut Antistius medicus existimabat, letale ullum repertum est, nisi quod secundo loco in pectore acceperat.
Nor in so many wounds, as the physician Antistius believed, was any found mortal except that which he had received second in his breast.
Fuerat animus coniuratis corpus occisi in Tiberim trahere, bona publicare, acta rescindere, sed metu Marci Antoni consulis et magistri equitum Lepidi destiterunt. §83postulante ergo Lucio Pisone socero testamentum eius aperitur recitaturque in Antoni domo, quod Idibus Septembribus proximis in Lauicano suo fecerat demandaueratque uirgini Vestali maximae.
The conspirators had intended to drag the body of the slain man into the Tiber, confiscate his goods, and annul his acts, but they desisted for fear of the consul Marcus Antony and Lepidus, the master of the horse. Therefore, at the demand of his father-in-law Lucius Piso, his will was opened and read in the house of Antony, which he had made on the preceding Ides of September at his villa near Lavicum and had entrusted to the chief Vestal Virgin.
Quintus Tubero tradit heredem ab eo scribi solitum ex consulatu ipsius primo usque ad initium ciuilis belli Cn. Pompeium, idque militibus pro contione recitatum.
Quintus Tubero relates that he had been accustomed to write Gnaeus Pompey as his heir from his first consulship to the beginning of the civil war, and that this had been read to the soldiers in assembly.
sed nouissimo testamento tres instituit heredes sororum nepotes, Gaium Octauium ex dodrante, et Lucium Pinarium et Quintum Pedium ex quadrante reliquo; in ima cera Gaium Octauium etiam in familiam nomenque adoptauit; plerosque percussorum in tutoribus fili, si qui sibi nasceretur, nominauit, Decimum Brutum etiam in secundis heredibus.
But in his last will he named three heirs, the grandsons of his sisters: Gaius Octavius to the extent of three-fourths, and Lucius Pinarius and Quintus Pedius of the remaining one-fourth; at the end of the will he also adopted Gaius Octavius into his family and name; he named many of his assassins among the guardians of his son, if any should be born to him, and Decimus Brutus even among his heirs in the second degree.
populo hortos circa Tiberim publice et uiritim trecenos sestertios legauit.
To the people he bequeathed his gardens near the Tiber for public use, and three hundred sesterces to each individual.