He sent an officer to bring him a report of the state of things on the other side, and after waiting a very long time for his return, matters appeared to him so desperate, that he bade his servant take away his life. The suspicion was already afloat among the ancients, that the slave behaved as a traitor, and did this without being ordered. Brutus was very downcast about the issue; twenty days passed, and both parties were still in the same position to each other as before: all was not yet lost. Had Brutus known that on the very day of the first battle his fleet had gained a complete victory, he would certainly have sent for it, and would have remained firm to his plan of keeping on the defensive. He had much trouble to get provisions, and it pained him to see that his troops were as lawless as those of the enemy: he had been obliged to promise them the plunder of Thessalonica and Lacedæmon in case of victory. On the day only that he yielded to the wish of his army to decide the war at once, he heard from the prisoners of the victory of his fleet; but low-spirited as he was, he would not believe it,—the messengers sent to him had been intercepted,—and he let himself be brought to an engagement. In this battle, his troops did not behave with the same gallantry as before, and they were signally beaten: Brutus escaped with a small band to a hill. As he could not reach the sea, and life would only be to him a most heavy burthen, he called upon his faithful servants to do the last duty to him; and on their refusing it, he fell upon his sword. He was only in his thirty-seventh year when he died: at the time of Cicero’s consulship therefore, he was fifteen years old.[21] Antony at that time saved many a life, whereas Octavian displayed a cold-blooded sneering cruelty which was revolting to the feelings: of this the strangely impartial account in Suetonius bears evidence. Antony had the body of Brutus solemnly buried: it is true that he likewise caused the son of Hortensius to be put to death, as he laid to his door the execution of his brother Caius. Most of the proscribed who were still alive, now killed themselves. Strikingly enough, among these was the father of that Livia who afterwards became the wife of Augustus, and the whole of whose family belonged to Pompey’s party: her first husband, Tiberius Claudius Nero, even tried to get up an insurrection in favour of the last of the proscribed. After the battle, the fleets were still untouched. The army took service with the conquerors; many of the soldiers were scattered, many also returned unobserved to Italy; especially the young volunteers, among whom was also the poet Horace. From Athens, where he was pursuing his studies with other young Romans, he had joined the army of Brutus, who gave them appointments as tribunes. He was afterwards very badly off, until he was recommended to Mæcenas by whose means he got his pardon.[22]