Cicero’s death ends for us this unhappy year. During its course, Brutus and Cassius had more and more established their power in the east: the former had made himself master of Macedonia, and been acknowledged by the legions; the latter whilst Cassius was in possession of Syria, had hemmed in Dolabella near Laodicea, and compelled him to surrender. This fellow, though he had at Rome as _consul suffectus_ overthrown the statue of Cæsar, had afterwards, when in Asia, killed Trebonius, who indeed, like Decius Brutus, had formerly been Cæsar’s friend, and therefore was one of the most guilty of his murderers: for this, he was now condemned as a traitor, and put to death. Cassius was still most highly popular in Syria owing to the Parthian war; the legions declared for him, and the whole of the country submitted to him. At the end of the year, Brutus and Cassius were masters of the whole of the east, of the Adriatic sea, of Macedonia, and of Achaia, as far as the frontiers of Egypt. Brutus kept C. Antonius, a brother of the triumvir, as a prisoner in Macedonia; but when the tidings came of the proscriptions at Rome, he had him executed. In the unfortunate issue of the war of Philippi, we may see the irresistible sway of what the ancients called _fatum_: one untoward circumstance followed close upon another, and everything which seemed to promise well took an unlucky turn. This was especially the case with the long expeditions of Brutus and Cassius in Asia. Though indeed these were of some advantage to them in bringing in money and soldiers, as they could both of them increase their resources and make conscriptions; they became notwithstanding the cause of their mishap. The chastisement of Xanthus in Lycia by Brutus, the taking of Rhodes by Cassius, and other things of the same kind, belong rather to the later Greek history than to this. Whilst they were training and recruiting their troops, they ought indeed to have kept themselves in Macedon and Greece, and have made it impossible for the triumvirs to bring together large masses; they would have compelled them to march a long way round through Illyricum, and should the enemy have landed at last, they might have prevented them from undertaking anything. Thus the chances would have been considerably in their favour. Fortune was likewise against their fleet. The two commanders, Statius Murcus and Domitius Ahenobarbus, who were stationed in the Illyrian waters, do not seem to have neglected anything; but the wind was fair for the triumvirs, and they landed two or three times in several squadrons on the Illyrian coast, and advanced from thence to Macedon. Here Brutus and Cassius had no troops, although they were not at all in want of soldiers; so that they must have withdrawn them to Thrace. It was not until the armies of Octavius and Antony had established themselves in Greece, and had subdued the whole of it, that their two antagonists concentrated their forces in Asia, and