The sum and substance of his words (as the rest of the assassins also loudly boasted) was that they had slain a tyrant. It was proposed by some of the conspirators that they ought to put out of the way still others who were likely to oppose them and again try to gain control. They say that Marcus Brutus restrained them,[120] declaring that it was not right to kill, for the sake of vague suspicion, people against whom there was no clear charge; and this view prevailed. Then rushing forth the assassins fled in haste through the forum up to the Capitoline, carrying their swords bare and shouting that they had acted in behalf of common freedom. A great crowd of gladiators and slaves, who had been prepared for the purpose, followed them. There was much running in the streets and through the forum, now that the news that Caesar had been murdered became known to the throng. The city looked as if it had been occupied by an enemy. After the conspirators had ascended the Capitoline, they distributed themselves in a circle about the place and mounted guard, fearing that Caesar’s soldiers would attack them. 26. The body of Caesar lay just where it fell, ignominiously stained with blood--a man who had advanced westward as far as Britain and the Ocean, and who had intended to advance eastward against the realms of the Parthians and Indi,[121] so that, with them also subdued, an empire of all land and sea might be brought under the power of a single head. There he lay, no one daring to remain to remove the body. Those of his friends who had been present had run away, and those who were away remained hidden in their houses, or else changed their clothing and went out into the country districts nearby. Not one of his many friends stood by him, either while he was being slaughtered or afterward, except Calvisius Sabinus and Censorinus,[122] but these also, though they offered some slight opposition when Brutus and Cassius and their followers made their attack, had to flee because of the greater number of their opponents. All the others looked out for themselves and some even acquiesced in what had occurred. They say that one of them thus addressed the body: ‘Enough of truckling to a tyrant.’ A little later, three slaves,[123] who were nearby, placed the body on a litter and carried it home through the forum, showing, where the covering was drawn back on each side, the hands hanging limp and the wounds on the face. Then no one refrained from tears, seeing him who had lately been honored like a god. Much weeping and lamentation accompanied them from either side, from mourners on the roofs, in the streets, and in the vestibules. When they