In this condition the widowed
Calpurnia received the lifeless clay of him who had lately been
sovereign of the world.
Lepidus moved his troops to the Campus Martius. But Antony had no
thoughts of using force; for in that case probably Lepidus would have
become master of Rome. During the night he took possession of the
treasure which Caesar had collected to defray the expenses of his
Parthian campaign, and persuaded Calpurnia to put into his hands all the
dictator's papers. Possessed of these securities, he barricaded his
house on the Carinae, and determined to watch the course of events.
In the evening Cicero, with other senators, visited the self-styled
liberators in the Capitol. They had not communicated their plot to the
orator, through fear (they said) of his irresolute counsels; but now
that the deed was done, he extolled it as a godlike act. Next morning,
Dolabella, Cicero's son-in-law, whom Caesar had promised should be his
successor in the consulship, assumed the consular fasces and joined the
liberators; while Cinna, son of the old Marian leader and therefore
brother-in-law to Caesar, threw aside his praetorian robes, declaring he
would no longer wear the tyrant's livery.
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