quiet and calm, had not been inactive. Finding that his plans were now
ripe for execution, and that they had no, open means of resisting them,
they formed a conspiracy to assassinate Caesar himself, and thus bring
his ambitious schemes to an effectual and final end. The name of the
original leader of this conspiracy was Cassius.

[Sidenote: Cassius.]

Cassius had been for a long time Caesar's personal rival and enemy. He
was a man of a very violent and ardent temperament, impetuous and
fearless, very fond of exercising power himself, but very restless and
uneasy in having it exercised over him. He had all the Roman repugnance
to being under the authority of a master, with an additional personal
determination of his own not to submit to Caesar. He determined to slay
Caesar rather than to allow him to be made a king, and he went to work,
with great caution, to bring other leading and influential men to join
him in this determination. Some of those to whom he applied said that
they would unite with him in his plot provided he would get Marcus
Brutus to join them.

[Sidenote: Marcus Brutus.]

Brutus was the praetor of the city. The praetorship of the city was a
very high municipal office. The conspirators wished to have Brutus join
them partly on account of his station as a magistrate, as if they
supposed that by having the highest public magistrate of the city for
their leader in the deed, the destruction of their victim would appear
less like a murder, and would be invested, instead, in some respects,
with the sanctions and with the dignity of an official execution.