Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/346

 338 MARCUS BRUTUS. did many memorable acts of justice in dispensing rewards and punishments to such as had deserved either ; but one in particular I will relate, because he himself, and all the noblest Romans, were gratified with it above all the rest. When Pompey the Great, being overthrown from his great power by Caesar, had fled to Egypt, and landed near Pelusium, the protectoi's of the young king consulted among themselves what was fit to be done on that occasion, nor could they all agree in the same opinion, some being for receiving him, others for driving him from Egypt. But Theodotus, a Chian by birth, and then attending upon the king as a paid teacher of rhe- toric, and for want of better men admitted into the council, undertook to prove to them, that both parties were in the wrong, those that counselled to receive Pompey, and those that advised to send him away ; tHat in then" present case one thing only was truly expedient, to seize him and to kill him ; and ended his argument with the proverb, that " dead men don't bite." The council agreed to his opinion, and Pompey the Great (an ex- ample of incredible and unforeseen events) was slain, as the sophister himself had the impudence to boast, through the rhetoric and cleverness of Theodotus. Not long after, when Caesar came to Egypt, some of the mur- derers received their just reward and suffered the evil death they deserved. But Theodotus, though he had borrowed on from fortune a little further time for a poor despicable and wandering life, yet did not lie hid from Brutus as he passed through Asia; but being seized by him and executed, had his death made more memo- rable than was his life. About this time, Brutus sent to Cassius to come to him at the city of Sardis, and, when he was on his journey, went forth with his friends to meet him ; and the whole army in array saluted each of them with the name of Im-