Nor could the conspirators conceal from themselves, that the undertaking which they were plotting could not but displease a wise man. Goethe has branded the murder of Cæsar as the greatest folly which the Romans ever committed; and never was a truer word spoken.[18] Hirtius and Pansa, two generous and wise men who were well aware that the republic needed to become settled, and not to be stirred up again, had advised Cæsar to look to himself, and to keep a body guard; but he disdained to do this, saying, that he would not wish to live, if he had always to think of preserving his life. He knew well that Brutus might entertain such a thought against him, and he spoke of it to his friends; but he would add, that his health had indeed been too much impaired, and Brutus would surely wait until that frail body of his had gone to decay. And it was the general belief that Cæsar would soon transfer his power to Brutus, as the most worthy to succeed him. It was while these things were going on, that Porcia, when she saw that Brutus was harbouring an important secret, and that he did not make her his confidante, inflicted upon herself a deep wound with a knife. The wound brought on a fever, the cause of which she hid from her husband; and it was only when he repeatedly pressed her, that she at last disclosed it, thus giving him a proof of her discretion. Cæsar went to the curia, although his own forebodings, the dreams of his wife, and the prophecies of the Haruspex had warned him of his death: Dec. Brutus basely enticed him thither. The conspirators were at first seized with fear, lest their plot should have been betrayed. Plutarch now beautifully tells us, how C. Tillius Cimber forced his way up to Cæsar, and worried him with his importunity, until he got angry; how Casca struck the first blow; and how Cæsar was murdered by twenty-three stabs. He lost his life in his fifty-sixth year, or after its completion.—I am not yet quite clear as to this point; but the latter seems to me more likely, judging from the time of his first consulship.—He was born on the eleventh of July, and died on the fifteenth of March, between eleven and twelve o’clock. STATE OF ROME AFTER THE MURDER OF CÆSAR. TRIUMVIRATE OF ANTONY, OCTAVIAN, AND LEPIDUS. DEATH OF CICERO.