existing. [-52-] He nominally received it, in spite of having made
his soldiers give voice to a sentiment previously mentioned,[25] but
accomplished no corresponding results. This was not because he had
formed a compact with Antony and through him with Lepidus,--little he
cared for that fact,--but because he saw they were powerful and knew
their purposes were linked by the bands of kinship, and he could not use
force with them; and besides he cherished hopes of bringing about
through them the downfall of Cassius and Brutus, who were already very
influential, and subsequently of wearing them out one against the other.
Accordingly, even against his will he kept his covenant with them and
directed his efforts to effecting a reconciliation for them with the
senate and with the people. He did not himself propose the matter, lest
some suspicion of what had really taken place should arise, but he set
out as if to make war on them, while Quintus urged, as if it were his own
idea, that amnesty and restoration be granted them. He did not secure
this, however, until the senate had communicated it to the supposedly
ignorant Caesar and he had unwillingly agreed to it, compelled, as he
alleged, by the soldiers.

[-53-] While this was being done Decimus at first set forth in the
intention of making war upon the pair, and associated with him Lucius
Planeus, since the latter had been appointed in advance as his colleague
for the following year. Learning, however, of his own condemnation and of
their reconciliation he wished to lead a campaign against Caesar, but was
abandoned by Plancus who favored the cause of Lepidus and Antony. Then he
decided to leave Gaul and hasten into Macedonia on land through Illyricum
to Marcus Brutus, and sent ahead some of the soldiers while he was
engaged in finishing some business he had in hand. But they embraced
Caesar's cause, and the rest were pursued by Lepidus and Antony and then
were won over through the agency of others. So, being deserted, he was