Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/330

 322 MARCUS BRUTUS. thinking it just that thej who were not partakers of the fact should share in the clanger. But the next day, the senate being assembled in the temple of the Earth,* and Antony and Plancus and Cicero having made orations recommending concord in general and an act of oblivion, it was decreed, that the men should not only be put out of all fear or danger, but that the consuls should see what honors and dignities were proper to be conferred upon them. After which done, the senate broke up ; and, Antony having sent his son as an hostage to the capitol, Brutus and his company came down, and mutual salutes and invitations passed amongst them, the whole of them being gathered together. An- tony invited and entertained Cassius, Lepidus did the same to Brutus, and the rest were invited and enter- tained by others, as each of them had acquaintance or friends. And as soon as it was day, the senate met again, and voted thanks to Antony for having stifled the be- ginning of a civil war ; afterwards Brutus and his as- sociates that were present received encomiums, and had provinces assigned and distributed among them. Crete was allotted to Brutus, Africa to Cassius, Asia to Trebo- nius, Bithynia to Cimber, and to the other Brutus Gaul about the Po. After these things, they began to consider of Caesar's will, and the ordering of his funeral. Antony desired that the will might be read, and that the body should not have a private or dishonorable interment, lest that should further exasperate the people. This Cassius violently opposed, but Brutus yielded to it, and gave leave ; in which he seems to have a second time committed a fault. For as before in sparing the life of Antony he could not be without some blame from his party, as thereby setting up against the conspiracy a dangerous and difficult
 * The temple of Tellus, in the Carinse.