It was not even allowed anybody to mourn for the victims, but several
perished from this cause also. And finally, when the calamities broke
through all the pretence they could assume and no one even of the most
stout-hearted could any longer wear an air of indifference to them, but
in all their work and conversation their countenances were overcast and
they were not intending to celebrate the usual festival at the beginning
of the year, they were ordered by a public notice to appear in good
spirits, on pain of death if they should refuse to obey. So they were
forced to rejoice over the common evils as over blessings. Yet why need I
have mentioned it, when they voted to those men (the triumvirs, I mean)
civic crowns and other distinctions as to benefactors and saviors of
the State? They did not think of being held to blame because they were
killing a few, but wished to receive additional praise for not putting
more out of the way. And to the populace they once openly stated that
they had emulated neither the cruelty of Marius and Sulla so as to incur
hatred, nor the mildness of Caesar so as to be despised and as a result
become objects of a conspiracy.

[-14-] Such were the conditions of the murders; but many other unusual
proceedings took place in regard to the property of persons left alive.
They actually announced, as if they were just and humane rulers, that
they would give to the widows of the slain their dowries, to the male
children a tenth, and to the female children a twentieth of the property
of each one's father. This was not, however, granted save in a few
cases: of the rest all the possessions without exception were ruthlessly
plundered. In the first place they levied upon all the houses in the City
and those in the rest of Italy a yearly rent, which was the entire amount
from dwellings which people had let, and half from such as they occupied
themselves, with reference to the value of the domicile. Again, from
those who had lands they took away half of the proceeds. Besides, they