before. Calpurnia's father proposed that this will should be opened and
read in public at Antony's house; and this was accordingly done. The
provisions of the will were, many of them, of such a character as
renewed the feelings of interest and sympathy which the people of Rome
had begun to cherish for Caesar's memory. His vast estate was divided
chiefly among the children of his sister, as he had no children of his
own, while the very men who had been most prominent in his assassination
were named as trustees and guardians of the property; and one of them,
Decimus Brutus, the one who had been so urgent to conduct him to the
senate-house, was a second heir. He had some splendid gardens near the
Tiber, which he bequeathed to the citizens of Rome, and a large amount
of money also, to be divided among them, sufficient to give every man a
considerable sum.

[Sidenote: Preparations for Caesar's funeral.]
[Sidenote: The Field of Mars.]

The time for the celebration of the funeral ceremonies was made known by
proclamation, and, as the concourse of strangers and citizens of Rome
was likely to be so great as to forbid the forming of all into one
procession without consuming more than one day, the various classes of
the community were invited to come, each in their own way, to the Field
of Mars, bringing with them such insignia, offerings, and oblations as
they pleased. The Field of Mars was an immense parade ground, reserved
for military reviews, spectacles, and shows. A funeral pile was erected
here for the burning of the body There was to be a funeral discourse
pronounced, and Marc Antony had been designated to perform this duty.
The body had been placed in a gilded bed, under a magnificent canopy in
the form of a temple, before the rostra where the funeral discourse was
to be pronounced. The bed was covered with scarlet and cloth of gold and