Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/181

 AJSTTONY. 173 His uncle Lucius Ctesar, being closely pursued, took refuge with his sister, who, when the murderers had broken into her house and were pressing into her chamber, met them at the door, and, spreading out her hands, cried out several times, " You shall not kill Lucius Csesar till you first despatch me, who gave your general his birth ; " and in this manner she succeeded in getting her brother out of the way, and saving his life. This triumvirate was very hateful to the Romans, and Antony most of all bore the blame, because he was older than Ctesar, and had greater authority than Lepidus, and withal he was no sooner settled in his affairs, but he returned to his luxurious and dissolute way of living. Be- sides the ill reputation he gained by his general behavior, it was some considerable disadvantage to him his living in the house of Pompey the Great, who had been as much admired for his temperance and his sober, citizen-like habits of Ufe, as ever he was for having triumphed three times. They could not without anger see the doors of that house shut against magistrates, officers, and envoys, who were shamefully refused admittance, while it was filled inside with players, jugglers, and drunken flatterers, upon whom were spent the greatest part of the wealth which violence and cruelty procured. For they did not limit themselves to the for- feiture of the estates of such as were proscribed, defraud- ing the widows and families, nor were they contented with laying on every possible kind of tax and imposition ; but, hearing that several sums of money were, as well by strangers as citizens of Eome, deposited in the hands of the vestal virgins, they went and took the money away by force. When it was manifest that nothing would ever be enough for Antony, Caesar at last called for a division of property. The army was also divided between them, upon their march into Macedonia to make war with