Cicero was included in the first 17 victims of the Proscription. He was residing in his Tusculan villa with his brother Quintus, who urged him to escape to Brutus in Macedonia. They reached Astura, a small island off Antium, when Quintus ventured to Rome to obtain a supply of money, of which they were in need. Here he was apprehended, together with his son, and both were put to death. The orator again embarked, and coasted along to Formiae, where he landed at his villa, resolving no longer to fly from his fate. After spending a night in his own house, his attendants, hearing that the soldiers were close at hand, forced him to enter a litter, and hurried him through the woods toward the shore, distant a mile from his house. As they were passing onward they were overtaken by their pursuers, and were preparing to defend their master with their lives; but Cicero commanded them to desist, and, stretching his head out of the litter, called upon his executioners to strike. They instantly cut off his head and hands, which were carried to Rome. Fulvia, the widow of Clodius and now the wife of Antony, gloated her eyes with the sight, and even thrust a hair-pin through his tongue. Antony ordered the head to be nailed to the Rostra, which had so often witnessed the triumphs of the orator. Thus died Cicero, in the 64th year of his age. He had not sufficient firmness of character to cope with the turbulent times in which his lot was cast, but as a man he deserves our admiration and love. In the midst of almost universal corruption he remained uncontaminated. He was an affectionate father, a faithful friend, and a kind master. Many of the Proscribed escaped from Italy, and took refuge with Sextus Pompey in Sicily, and with Brutus and Cassius in the East. After the death of Caesar, the Senate appointed Sextus Pompey to the command of the Republican fleet. He had become master of Sicily; his fleet commanded the Mediterranean; and Rome began to suffer from want of its usual supplies of corn. It was arranged that Octavian should attempt the conquest of Sicily, while Antony was preparing for the campaign in the East. A fleet under Salvidienus Rufus was sent against Pompey, but was defeated by the latter in the Straits of Sicily, in sight of Octavian. But the war against Brutus and Cassius was more urgent, and accordingly Octavian and Antony sailed shortly afterward to the East, leaving Pompey undisputed master of the sea. On quitting Italy, Brutus had first gone to Athens. The remains of the Pompeian legions, which continued in Greece after the battle of Pharsalia, gathered round him; Hortensius, the governor of Macedonia, acknowledged him as his successor; and C. Antonius, whom his brother had sent over to take the command of the province, was obliged to surrender to Brutus. His colleague had been equally fortunate in Syria. Dolabella, to whom Antony had given this province, was besieged in Laodicea by Cassius, and put an end to his own life.