at the head of it was laid the robe in which Caesar had been slain. It
was stained with blood, and pierced with the holes that the swords and
daggers of the conspirators had made.

[Sidenote: Marc Antony's oration.]
[Sidenote: The funeral pile.]

Marc Antony, instead of pronouncing a formal panegyric upon his deceased
friend, ordered a crier to read the decrees of the Senate, in which all
honors, human and divine, had been ascribed to Caesar. He then added a
few words of his own. The bed was then taken up, with the body upon it,
and borne out into the Forum, preparatory to conveying it to the pile
which had been prepared for it upon the Field of Mars, A question,
however, here arose among the multitude assembled in respect to the
proper place for burning the body. The people seemed inclined to select
the most honorable place which could be found within the limits of the
city. Some proposed a beautiful temple on the Capitoline Hill. Others
wished to take it to the senate-house, where he had been slain. The
Senate, and those who were less inclined to pay extravagant honors to
the departed hero, were in favor of some more retired spot, under
pretense that the buildings of the city would be endangered by the fire.
This discussion was fast becoming a dispute, when it was suddenly ended
by two men, with swords at their sides and knees in their hands, forcing
their way through the crowd with lighted torches, and setting the bed
and its canopy on fire where it lay.

[Illustration: BURNING OF CAESAR'S BODY.]

[Sidenote: The body burned in the Forum.]