Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, -30 B.C.; Egypt -- History -- 332-30 B.C. -- Biography; Queens -- Egypt -- Biography
The next morning Brutus related to Cassius the occurrence which he had
witnessed. Cassius, though very sensitive, it seems, to the influence of
omens affecting himself, was quite philosophical in his views in respect
to those of other men. He argued very rationally with Brutus to convince
him that the vision which he had seen was only a phantom of sleep, taking
its form and character from the ideas and images which the situation in
which Brutus was then placed, and the fatigue and anxiety which he had
endured, would naturally impress upon his mind.
But to return to the battle. Brutus fought against Octavius; while
Cassius, two or three miles distant, encountered Antony, that having been,
as will be recollected, the disposition of the respective armies and their
encampments upon the plain. Brutus was triumphantly successful in his part
of the field. His troops defeated the army of Octavius, and got possession
of his camp. The men forced their way into Octavius's tent, and pierced
the litter in which they supposed that the sick general was lying through
and through with their spears. But the object of their desperate hostility
was not there. He had been borne away by his guards a few minutes before,
and no one knew what had become of him.
The result of the battle was, however, unfortunately for those whose
adventures we are now more particularly following, very different in
Cassius's part of the field. When Brutus, after completing the conquest of
his own immediate foes, returned to his elevated camp, he looked toward
the camp of Cassius, and was surprised to find that the tents had
disappeared. Some of the officers around perceived weapons glancing and
glittering in the sun in the place where Cassius's tents ought to appear.
Brutus now suspected the truth, which was, that Cassius had been defeated,
and his camp had fallen into the hands of the enemy. He immediately
collected together as large a force as he could command, and marched to
the relief of his colleague. He found him, at last, posted with a small
body of guards and attendants upon the top of a small elevation to which
he had fled for safety. Cassius saw the troop of horsemen which Brutus
sent forward coming toward him, and supposed that it was a detachment from
Antony's army advancing to capture him. He, however, sent a messenger
forward to meet them, and ascertain whether they were friends or foes. The
messenger, whose name was Titinius, rode down. The horsemen recognized
Titinius, and, riding up eagerly around him, they dismounted from their
horses to congratulate him on his safety, and to press him with inquiries
in respect to the result of the battle and the fate of his master.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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