+Context.+ After his return from Spain (Sept. 45 B.C.), Caesar was busy with the reconstruction of the Senate, the completion of his vast buildings in Rome, and with other far-reaching projects. But during these months the clouds of ill-will were gathering and threatening him on every side. A conspiracy was formed, of which C. Cassius, ‘a lean and hungry man,’ of a bitter and jealous disposition, seems to have been the real instigator. He persuaded Brutus, a student of life chiefly in books, that liberty could only be gained by murder, and at last it was resolved that the deed should be done on the Ides (15th) of March. [Linenotes: 8. +graphio+ (γραφίον = _scriptorium_) = _a writing-style_. 12. +quo honestius caderet+, cf. Ovid, _Fasti_ ii. 833 (of Lucretia): [Hallam II. 675] _Tunc quoque iam moriens ne non procumbat honeste Respicit, haec etiam cura cadentis erat._ 16. Καὶ σὺ τέκνον; there seems to be no authority for attributing the words _Et tu Brute?_ to Caesar. Shakespeare found them in an earlier play.] +The Murder of Caesar.+ ‘It is the most brutal and the most pathetic scene that profane history has to record; it was, as Goethe has said, the most senseless deed that ever was done. It was wholly useless, for it did not and could not save Rome from monarchy. The deed was done by a handful of men, who, pursuing a phantom liberty and following the lead of a personal hatred, slew +the one man who saw the truth of things+.’ --W. F. B66 GAIUS IULIUS CAESAR. (7) ‘_There may be many Caesars Ere such another Julius._’--Cymbeline. A. Fuit in illo ingenium, ratio, memoria, litterae, cura, cogitatio, diligentia; res bello gesserat quamvis rei publicae calamitosas, at tamen magnas; multos annos regnare meditatus magno labore multis periculis quod cogitarat effecerat; muneribus, monumentis, {5} congiariis, epulis multitudinem imperitam delenierat: suos praemiis, adversarios clementiae specie devinxerat. CICERO, _Philippica_, ii. 45. [Linenotes: 4. +regnare meditatus.+ For Caesar monarchy meant the liberation of the Empire. 5. +muneribus+ (sc. +gladiatoriis+) = _gladiatorial shows_. +monumentis+ = _public buildings_, e.g. his forum, amphitheatre, Temple of Venus Genetrix, and other public works begun (e.g. the _Curia Iulia_) and planned. 6. +congiariis+ (sc. _donis_), orig. a _gift of wine_ (a _congius_ = about 6 pints), then = _wine-money_ (Ger. _Trinkgeld_), and so of any largess. 7-8. +clementiae specie.+ Cic. himself refutes this ungrateful taunt in his _pro Marcello_: _Recte igitur unus invictus est, a quo etiam ipsius victoriae condicio visque devicta est_.] B.