have received his life from the hands of Julius Caesar, who, he had
decided, ought to be put to death.

As to the grounds upon which he put him to death, I shall discuss
them elsewhere; for to my mind, though he was in other respects a
great man, in this he seems to have been entirely wrong, and not to
have followed the maxims of the Stoic philosophy. He must either
have feared the name of "King," although a state thrives best under
a good king, or he must have hoped that liberty could exist in a
state where some had so much to gain by reigning, and others had so
much to gain by becoming slaves. Or, again, he must have supposed
that it would be possible to restore the ancient constitution after
all the ancient manners had been lost, and that citizens could
continue to possess equal rights, or laws remain inviolate, in a
state in which he had seen so many thousands of men fighting to
decide, not whether they should be slaves or free, but which master
they should serve. How forgetful he seems to have been, both of
human nature and of the history of his own country, in supposing
that when one despot was destroyed another of the same temper would
not take his place, though, after so many kings had perished by
lightning and the sword, a Tarquin was found to reign! Yet Brutus
did right in receiving his life from Caesar, though he was not
bound thereby to regard Caesar as his father, since it was by a
wrong that Caesar had come to be in a position to bestow this
benefit. A man does not save your life who does not kill you; nor
does he confer a benefit, but merely gives you your discharge. [The
'discharge' alluded to is that which was granted to the beaten one
of a pair of gladiators, when their duel was not to the death.]

XXI. It seems to offer more opportunity for debate to consider what