ABSTRACT
Few ancient historians considered the assassination as anything but a gross mistake fraught with evil consequences. The conspirators on the whole were condemned. Brutus shared the double reputation of C<csar. He was noble in his Republican and Stoic principles, yet he killed his benefactor, and though he did it for the best political motives the result proved him wrong. Either political circumstances or the gods themselves avenged C<csar within a short time. Antony also had two sides. He was a man of lax principles and loose life, yet he was C<csar's faithful friend and avenger. Afterwards he declined rapidly through his enmity towards Octavian and his luxurious life in Egypt, and he deserved his miserable fate at the hands of C<csar's heir, who himself combined the virtues of the avenger and peace bringer with a coldly calculating strain.
