For the
young man, once established, and possessed of the office of
consul, bade Cicero farewell; and reconciling himself with Antony
and Lepidus, joined his power with theirs, and divided the
government, like a piece of property, with them. Thus united, they
made a schedule of above two hundred persons who were to be put to
death. But the greatest contention in all their debates was on the
question of Cicero's case. Antony would come to no conditions,
unless he should be the first man to be killed. Lepidus held with
Antony, and Caesar opposed them both. They met secretly and by
themselves, for three days together, near the town of Bononia. The
spot was not far from the camp, with a river surrounding it.
Caesar, it is said, contended earnestly for Cicero the first two
days; but on the third day he yielded, and gave him up. The terms
of their mutual concessions were these; that Caesar should desert
Cicero, Lepidus his brother Paulus, and Antony, Lucius Caesar, his
uncle by his mother's side. Thus they let their anger and fury
take from them the sense of humanity, and demonstrated that no
beast is more savage than man, when possessed with power
proportioned to his rage.
While these things were contriving, Cicero was with his brother at
his country-house near Tusculum; whence, hearing of the
proscriptions, they determined to pass to Astura, a villa of
Cicero's near the sea, and to take shipping from there for
Macedonia to Brutus, of whose strength in that province news had
already been heard.
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