On

sacred grove to the sea, and sent him off to Africa. landing, he sent his son to ask shelter from one of the Numidian princes, and, while waiting for an answer, he was harassed by a messenger from a Roman officer of low rank, forbidding his presence in Africa. He made no reply till the messenger pressed to know what to say to his master. Then the old man looked up, and sternly answered, 'Say that you have seen Caius Marius sitting in the ruins of Carthage.'

LXXV.

The house was full. The conspirators were in their places with their daggers ready. Attendants came in to remove Caesar's chair. It was announced that he was not coming. Delay might be fatal. They conjectured that he already suspected something. A day's respite, and all might be discovered. Decimus Brutus, whom it was impossible for him to distrust, went to entreat his attendance, giving reasons to which he knew that Caesar would listen, unless the plot had been actually betrayed. It was now eleven in the forenoon. Caesar shook off his uneasiness, and rose to go. he crossed the hall, his statue fell, and shivered on the stones. As he still passed on, a stranger thrust a scroll into his hand, and begged him to read it on the spot. It contained a list of the conspirators, with a clear account of the plot. He supposed it to be a petition, and placed it carelessly among his other papers. The fate of the Empire hung upon a thread, but the thread was not broken.

As

LXXVI.

As he was carried to the Senate House in a litter, a man gave him a writing and begged him to read it instantly; but he kept it rolled in his hand without looking. As he went up the steps he said to the augur Spurius, 'The Ides of March are come.' 'Yes, Caesar,' was the answer, 'but they are not passed.' A few steps further on, one of the conspirators met him with a petition, and the others joined in it, clinging to his robe and his neck, till another caught his toga, and pulled it over his arms, and then the first blow was struck with a dagger. Caesar struggled at first as all fifteen tried to strike at him, but when he saw the hand uplifted of his treacherous friend Decimus, he exclaimed, 'Et tu, Brute!' drew his toga over his head, and fell dead at the foot of the statue of Pompeius.

LXXVII.

Waving his dagger, dripping with Caesar's blood, Brutus shouted to Cicero by name, congratulating him that liberty was restored. The Senate rose with shrieks and confusion, and rushed into the Forum. The crowd outside caught the words that Caesar was dead, and scattered to their houses. Antony, guessing that those who had killed Caesar would not spare himself, hurried off into concealment. The murderers, bleeding some of them from wounds which they had given one another in their eagerness, followed, crying that the tyrant was dead, and that Rome was free; and the body of the great Caesar was left alone in the house where a few weeks before Cicero told him that he was so necessary to his country that every senator would die before harm could reach him!

LXXVIII.

I

But Hector said, 'Nay, let these things be my care. would not that any son or daughter of Troy should see me skulking from the war. And my own heart loathes the thought, and bids me fight in the front. Well I know, indeed, that Priam, and the people of Priam, and holy Troy, will perish. Yet it is not for Troy, or for the people, or even for my father or my mother that I care so much, as for thee in the day when some Greek shall carry thee away captive, and thou shalt ply the loom or carry the pitcher in the land of Greece. And some one shall say when he sees thee, "This was Hector's wife, who was the bravest of the sons of Troy." May the earth cover me before that day!'

LXXIX.

Translate the foregoing passage into the Oratio Obliqua.

LXXX.

'Tell me, Glaucus, why is it that men honour us at home with the chief rooms at feasts, and with fat portions of flesh and with sweet wine, and that we have a great domain of orchard and plough land by the banks of Xanthus ? Surely it is that we may fight in the front rank. Then shall some one who may behold us say, "Of a truth these are honourable men, these princes of Lycia, and not without good right do they eat the fat and drink the sweet, for they fight ever in the front!" Now, indeed, if we might live for ever, nor know old age nor death, neither would I fight among the first, nor would I bid thee arm thyself for the battle. But seeing that there are ten thousand fates about us which no man may avoid, let us see whether we shall win glory from another, or another shall take it from us.'

LXXXI.

Translate the foregoing passage into the Oratio Obliqua.

LXXXII.

As Trajan was once setting out for Rome, at the head of a numerous army, to make war in Wallachia, he was suddenly accosted by a woman, who called out in a pathetic but bold tone, To Trajan I appeal for justice!' Although the emperor was pressed by the affairs of a most urgent war, he instantly stopped, and alighting from his horse, heard the suppliant state the cause of her complaint. She was a poor widow, and had been left with an only son, who had been foully murdered; she had sued for justice on his murderers, but had been unable to obtain it. Trajan, having satisfied himself of the truth of her statements, decreed her on the spot the satisfaction which she demanded, and sent the mourner away comforted. So much was this action admired, that it was afterwards represented on the pillar erected to Trajan's memory, as one of the most resplendent instances of his goodness.

LXXXIII.

The orator Domitius was once in great danger from an inscription which he had put upon a statute erected by him in honour of Caligula, wherein he had declared that that prince was a second time Consul at the age of twenty-seven. This he intended as an encomium; but Caligula taking it as a sarcasm upon his youth, and his infringement of the laws, raised a process against him, and pleaded himself in person. Domitius, instead of making a defence, repeated part of the

emperor's speech with the highest marks of admiration, after which he fell upon his knees, and begging pardon, declared that he dreaded more the eloquence of Caligula than his imperial power. This piece of flattery succeeded so well, that the emperor not only pardoned, but also raised him to the Consulship.

LXXXIV.

Foiled thus, and with great numbers of men dying from the fever that always prevailed in Rome in summer, Brennus thought of retreating, and offered to leave Rome if the garrison in the Capitol would pay him a thousand pounds' weight of gold. There was treasure enough in the temple to do this, and as they could not tell what Camillus was about, nor if Pontius had reached him safely, and they were on the point of being starved, they consented. The gold was brought to the place appointed by the Gauls, and when the weights proved not to be equal to the amount that the Romans had with them, Brennus, resolved to have all, put his sword into the other scale, saying 'Woe to the conquered.' But at that moment there was a noise outsideCamillus was come. The Gauls were cut down and slain among the ruins, those who fled were killed by the people in the country as they wandered in the fields, and not one returned to tell the tale.

LXXXV.

The Romans wanted to treat about the prisoners Pyrrhus had taken, so they sent Caius Fabricius to the Greek camp for the purpose. Kineas reported him to be a man of no