Ch. 14
CHAPTER XIV
Indictment and Trial of Csar's Murderers -- The Senate rescinds its Decrees against Antony and Lepidus -- Flight of Decimus Brutus -- He is captured and put to Death
[sect. 95] He caused a new law to be passed to repeal the one which declared Dolabella a public enemy, and also to punish the murder of Csar. Indictments were found forthwith, the friends of Csar bringing accusations against some for actual participation in the crime and against others as having guilty knowledge only. Several were indicted, and among them some who were not in the city when Csar was killed. One day was fixed by public proclamation for the trial of all, and judgment was taken against all by default while Octavius was overlooking the court. None of the judges voted for acquittal except one patrician, who then escaped with impunity, but was included with others in the proscription a little later. It appears that about this time Quintus Gallius, a city prtor and brother of Marcus Gallius, who was serving with Antony, asked Octavius for the command of Africa, and, being thus brought into his presence, attempted to take his life. His colleagues stripped him of his prtorship, the people tore his house down, and the Senate condemned him to death. Octavius ordered him to depart to his brother, and it is said that he took ship and was never seen again.397
[sect. 96]
These things accomplished, Octavius formed plans for a reconciliation with Antony, for he had learned that Brutus and Cassius had already collected twenty legions of soldiers, and he needed Antony's help against them. He moved out of the city toward the Adriatic coast and proceeded in a leisurely way, waiting to see what the Senate would do. Pedius persuaded the senators, after Octavius had taken his departure, not to make their differences with each other irremediable, but to be reconciled to Lepidus and Antony. They foresaw that such a reconciliation would not be for their advantage or for that of the country, but would be merely an assistance to Octavius against Brutus and Cassius. Nevertheless, they gave their approval and assent to it as a matter of necessity. So the decrees declaring Antony and Lepidus, and the soldiers under them, public enemies, were repealed, and others of a peaceful nature were sent to them. Thereupon Octavius wrote and congratulated them, and he promised to lend assistance to Antony against Decimus Brutus if he needed it. They replied to him at once in a friendly spirit and eulogized him. Antony wrote that he would himself take vengeance on Decimus for Csar's account and on Plancus398 for his own, and that then he would join forces with Octavius.
[sect. 97]
Such were the letters which they exchanged with each other. While pursuing Decimus, Antony was joined by Asinius Pollio with two legions. Asinius also brought about an arrangement with Plancus, by virtue of which the latter passed over to Antony with three legions, so that Antony now had much the strongest force. Decimus had ten legions, of whom four, the most experienced in war, had suffered severely from famine and were still enfeebled. The other six were new levies, still untrained and unaccustomed to their labors. As he despaired of fighting, he decided to flee to Marcus Brutus in Macedonia. He retreated not by the higher Alps, but toward Ravenna and Aquileia. Since Csar had travelled by this route, Decimus proposed another longer and more difficult one -- to cross the Rhine and traverse the wild country of barbarian tribes. Thereupon the new levies, bewildered and fatigued, were the first to desert him and join Octavius. After them the four older legions joined Antony, and the auxiliaries did the same, except a body-guard of Gallic horse. Then Decimus allowed those who wished to do so to return to their own homes, and, after distributing among them the gold he had with him, proceeded toward the Rhine with 300 followers, the only ones who remained. As it was difficult to cross the river with so few, he was now abandoned by all the others except ten. He put on Gallic clothing, and, as he was acquainted with the language, he proceeded on his journey with these, passing himself off as a Gaul. He no longer followed the longer route, but went toward Aquileia, thinking that he should escape notice by reason of the smallness of his force.399
[sect. 98]
Having been captured by robbers and bound, he asked them who was the chief of this Gallic tribe. He was informed that it was Camillus, a man to whom he had done many favors. So he told them to bring him to Camillus. When the latter saw him led in, he greeted him in a friendly way in public, and scolded those who had bound him, for putting an indignity on so great a man through ignorance; but he sent word to Antony secretly. Antony was some-what touched by this change of fortune, and was not willing to see Decimus, but he ordered Camillus to kill him and send his head to himself.400 When he saw the head he ordered his attendants to bury it. Such was the end of Decimus, who had been Csar's prfect of horse and had governed Farther Gaul401 under him and had been designated by him for the consulship the coming year and for the governorship of Hither Gaul. He was the next of the murderers after Trebonius to meet punishment, within a year and a half of the assassination. About the same time Minucius Basilus, another of Csar's murderers, was killed by his slaves, some of whom he was castrating by way of punishment.
