pursuit of this business he did not make known his intention until he had
seen to the payment of the bequests made to them. When they had been made
docile by means of the money, although it belonged to the public funds
and had been collected on the pretext of war, then at length he began to
follow up the assassins. In order that this procedure of his might not
appear to be characterized by violence but by justice, he proposed a law
about their trial and tried the cases in their absence. The majority of
them were out of town and some even held governorships over provinces.
Those who were present also did not come forward, by reason of fear, and
withdrew unobserved. Consequently they were convicted by default, and
not only those who had been the actual murderers of Caesar and their
fellow-conspirators, but many others who so far from plotting against
Caesar, had not even been in the city at the time. This action was
directed chiefly against Sextus Pompey. The latter though he had had no
share whatever in the attack was nevertheless condemned because he had
been an enemy. Those adjudged guilty were debarred from fire and water
and their property was confiscated. The provinces,--not only those which
some of them were governing, but all the rest,--were committed to the
friends of Caesar.

[-49-] Among those held liable was also Publius Servilius Casca, the
tribune. He had suspected Caesar's purpose in advance, before he entered
the city, and had quietly slipped away. For this act he was at once
removed from his office, on the charge of having left the city contrary
to precedent, by the populace convened by his colleague Publius Titius;
and in this way he was condemned. When Titius not long after died, the
proverbial fate that had been observed from of old was once more in
evidence. No one up to that time who had expelled a colleague had lived
the year out: but first Brutus after the expulsion of Collatinus died in
his turn, then Gracchus was stabbed after expelling Octavius, and Cinna