Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/360

 352 MARCUS BRUTUS. what he had lost. They at these words took courage, and were astonished at the magnificence of the gift ; and waited upon him at his parting with shouts and praises, magnifying him for the only general of all the four who was not overcome in the battle. And indeed the action itself testified that it was not without I'eason he believed he should conquer ; for with a few legions he overthrew all that resisted him ; and if all his soldiers had fought, and the most of them had not passed beyond the enemy in pursuit of the plunder, it is very likely that he had utterly defeated every part of them. There fell of his side eight thousand men, reckoning the servants of the army, whom Brutus calls Briges ; and on the other side, Messala says his opinion is that there were slain above twice that number. For which reason they were more out of heart than Brutus, until a servant of Cassius, named Demetrius, came in the evening to Antony, and brought to him the garment which he had taken from the dead body, and his sword ; at the sight of which they were so encouraged, that, as soon as it was morning, they drew out their whole force into the field, and stood in battle array. But Brutus found both his camps wavering and in disorder ; for his own, being filled with prisoners, required a guard more strict than ordi- nary over them ; and that of Cassius was uneasy at the change of general, besides some envy and rancor, which those that were conquered bore to that part of the army which had been conquerors. Wherefore he thought it convenient to put his army in array, but to abstain from fighting. All the slaves that were taken prisoners, of whom there was a great number that were mixed up, not without suspicion, among the soldiers, he commanded to be slain ; but of the freemen and citizens, some he dis- missed, saying that among the enemy they were rather prisoners than with him, for with them they were cap-