This settled the question, and the whole company were soon in the
wildest excitement with the work of building up a funeral pile upon the
spot. At first they brought fagots and threw upon the fire, then benches
from the neighboring courts and porticoes, and then any thing
combustible which came to hand. The honor done to the memory of a
deceased hero was, in some sense, in proportion to the greatness of his
funeral pile, and all the populace on this occasion began soon to seize
every thing they could find, appropriate and unappropriate, provided
that it would increase the flame. The soldiers threw on their lances and
spears, the musicians their instruments, and others stripped off the
cloths and trappings from the furniture of the procession, and heaped
them upon the burning pile.

[Sidenote: The conflagration.]

So fierce and extensive was the fire, that it spread to some of the
neighboring houses, and required great efforts to prevent a general
conflagration. The people, too, became greatly excited by the scene.
They lighted torches by the fire, and went to the houses of Brutus and
Cassius, threatening vengeance upon them for the murder of Caesar. The
authorities succeeded though with infinite difficulty, in protecting
Brutus and Cassius from the violence of the mob, but they seized one
unfortunate citizen of the name of Cinna, thinking it a certain Cinna
who had been known as an enemy of Caesar. They cut off his head,
notwithstanding his shrieks and cries, and carried it about the city on
the tip of a pike, a dreadful symbol of their hostility to the enemies
of Caesar. As frequently happens, however, in such deeds of sudden
violence, these hasty and lawless avengers found afterward that they had
made a mistake, and beheaded the wrong man.