Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/475

43 B.C.] with them. Plancus had written to Cicero in July: "That Antony is alive to-day, that Lepidus has joined him, that they have formidable armies, that they are full of hope and daring—you may set all this down to Cæsar." It seems probable that Lepidus had not received Antony without first coming to an understanding with him as to a reconciliation with Octavian. Toward the end of October the three chiefs met in an island of the river near Bononia, and the bargain was soon struck. It was agreed to have a Proscription even more bloody than that of Sulla, and Cicero was to be the first victim. Plutarch tells us that Octavian contended for two days for the life of Cicero. On the third day each of the three surrendered his own friends to the animosity of his colleagues. Shakespeare has made the scene live before us:

We hear nothing of Cicero during Octavian's presence in Rome. Now that military force had overpowered the commonwealth, the statesman must have felt that he had received his discharge. Plutarch says that he was in his villa at Tusculum when he received tidings of his proscription. He made a faint attempt to escape by sea, but landed again and