Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/463

43 B.C.] , the tributes to the memory of the fallen, "who had conquered in their death," and the great public Thanksgiving ordered for the victory. But this festival, the last decreed by a free Republic in Rome, was destined never to be celebrated. Almost from this moment the tide of events began to turn.

The altered situation was due to the action first of the veteran legions and secondly to Octavian. The weak point in the policy of the Liberators now became apparent. A military despotism, resting on standing army, is not to be overthrown by the assassination of the despot. If the Republicans could have possessed their souls in patience until the natural end of Cæsar's life, it is possible that his army might have acquiesced, as Cromwell's army did, in the will of the nation. As it was, the death of Cæsar consecrated a martyr for the cause of the soldiers, and the cry for vengeance gave them an excuse for domination. The conspirators hoped that they had created the Republic anew; in truth they had only removed one representative of the new ruling caste. The real masters of the State had only to decide who should be their delegate in the future and to initiate that system of government by pronunciamento, which was the curse of the world during the next four centuries, just as it is in South America at the present day.