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(of wars) having been concluded, he was returning to Rome, his pride swollen by his continuous brave deeds, and contrary to the custom of Roman liberty, behaving arrogantly towards those who met him. Since, then, having taken away the honors and authority of the people, he himself entrusted them to whomever he wished, and, when the senate came to him, he did not stand up, but was clearly delighting in royal or, to speak more truly, tyrannical practices (for some of his flatterers offered him images and statues and dedications, and others also addressed him as king), thus, therefore, appearing greater than all the Romans in memory, on account of his superhuman power he was named a god. And there are from the Trojan events to Julius Caesar one thousand one hundred and twenty-four years. 16. But since Caesar conducted himself with excessive pride towards the senate, they plotted his death, both out of envy for what was his due and hatred for the one who had been preferred, more than 60 men from both the senate and those who were of the equestrian order, having confirmed the conspiracy against him with an oath. Indeed, two Bruti, more than anyone else, led the conspirators to the attempt, being of a most severe family from of old; for they traced the origin of their bloodline to the ancient Brutus, who, having expelled the tyrants in the earliest times, was appointed first consul among the Romans. 17. And yet some say that they were born of a plebeian father, who had only recently and just now come among the magistrates; for no family was left to the ancient Brutus, who killed his sons; to which the philosopher Posidonius, arguing against it, says that the sons of Brutus who were of age perished, but a third was left as an infant, from whom the family descended to these men. And their mother was the sister of the philosopher Cato, whom the elder Brutus emulated most of all the Romans, being his uncle and later having become his father-in-law. For to Porcia **. 18. And after the Bruti, Gaius Cassius was in the conspiracy, who had campaigned with Crassus against the Parthians, and Servilius Casca, who is said to have been the first to draw his sword against Caesar. When the time arrived, at which it was necessary for the assembled senate to deliberate on public affairs, Caesar was also present in the senate house, to take part in the proceedings. And as they carried the swords, having hidden them in a small box, and brought them to the council in the manner of writing tablets, immediately rising and surrounding Caesar, they began to wound him. And when they attacked, at first he pushed away his attackers and defended himself as he was able; but when he saw Brutus advancing on him with a drawn sword and ranged with the enemy, covering his head he gave up his body to be struck. Having received, then, twenty-three wounds, he was killed, when about seven hundred and nine years had passed for the city after its founding. Tzetzes Chil. III, 23, v. 16: The kinswoman of Ptolemy, lady Cleopatra ... she, with the Cypriot architect Dexiphanes, having made land out of the sea of Alexandria for about four stades, or a little more, constructed the great tower of Pharos, to show a saving light for merchant ships, especially in a storm. Virgil mentions this Cleopatra, Lucian and Galen and Plutarch with them, Diodorus, George the chronicler with others, and after them John of Antioch later. 73 Exc. Salm.: When Gaius Julius Caesar was a young man, he dreamed that he had intercourse with his own mother, and in his herds a horse was born having toes instead of a hoof, and it would accept no other rider, except him alone, just as Bucephalus did Alexander. And one day before his death, his wife dreamed she saw his house had collapsed, and that he, wounded and covered in blood, fell into her arms. And as he was proceeding, someone gave him the plot against him on a piece of paper; but he, thinking it was something else, and for this reason not reading it, but giving it to his scribes, was slain. 74 Exc. De ins.: After Caesar was killed in the senate house, civil war was kindled again.

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πολέμων) κατειργασμένων, ἐπὶ τὴν Ῥώμην ἀνεστρέφετο, τό τε φρόνημα ταῖς συνεχέσιν ἀνδραγαθίαις ἐξωγκωμένος, καὶ παρὰ τὸ σύνηθες τῇ Ῥωμαίων ἐλευθερίᾳ πρὸς τοὺς ἐντυγχάνοντας ἀλαζονευόμενος. Ἐπεὶ γοῦν τάς τε τιμὰς καὶ τὸ κῦρος τοῦ δήμου παρελόμενος αὐτὸς ἐπέτρεπεν οἷς ἐβούλετο, καὶ, τῆς βουλῆς πρὸς αὐτὸν ἰούσης, οὐχ ὑπανίστατο, ἀλλὰ βασιλικοῖς εἴτε, ἀληθέστερον εἰπεῖν, τυραννικοῖς χαίρων δῆλος ἦν ἐπιτηδεύμασιν (εἰκόνας τε γὰρ καὶ ἀνδριάντας καὶ ἀνιδρύματά τινες αὐτῷ τῶν κολάκων προσέφερον, ἄλλοι τε καὶ βασιλέα προσηγόρευον), οὕτω τοίνυν πάντων τῶν ἐν μνήμῃ Ῥωμαίων κρείττων φανεὶς, διὰ τὴν ὑπὲρ ἄνθρωπον δύναμιν θεὸς ὠνομάσθη. Εἰσὶ δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν Τρωϊκῶν ἐπὶ Ἰούλιον Καίσαρα ἐνιαυτοὶ χίλιοι ρκδʹ. 16. Ἐπεὶ δὲ Καῖσαρ ὑπερόγκῳ φρονήματι ἐς τὴν σύγκλητον διεγένετο, βουλεύουσι κατ' αὐτοῦ θάνατον, φθόνῳ τε τοῦ προσήκοντος καὶ μίσει τοῦ προτετιμημένου, ἄνδρες ὑπὲρ ξʹ τῶν τε ἀπὸ τῆς συγκλήτου καὶ τῶν ἐς τοὺς ἱππέας τελούντων, ὅρκῳ τὴν κατ' αὐτοῦ σύστασιν βεβαιωσάμενοι. Ἐνῆγον δὲ ἄρα μάλιστα πάντων τοὺς συνωμότας ἐς τὴν ἐπιχείρησιν Βροῦτοι δύω, γένους ὄντες ἀνέκαθεν αὐστηροτάτου· ἐς γὰρ δὴ τὸν παλαιὸν Βροῦτον τοῦ αἵματος ἀνέφερον τὴν ἀρχὴν, ὃς τοὺς τυράννους ἐν τοῖς ἀνωτάτω χρόνοις ἐκβαλὼν, πρῶτος ἀπεδείχθη παρὰ Ῥωμαίοις ὕπατος. 17. Καίτοι φασί τινες δημοτικοῦ γεγενῆσθαι πατρὸς αὐτοὺς, ἄρτι καὶ πρώην ἐς ἄρχοντας παρεληλυθότος· οὐ γὰρ τῷ παλαιῷ γε Βρούτῳ λειφθῆναι γένος, ἀνελόντι τοὺς υἱέας· οἷς ὁ φιλόσοφος ἀντιλέγων Ποσειδώνιος, τοὺς μὲν ἐν ἡλικίᾳ φησὶν ἀπολωλέναι τοῦ Βρούτου παῖδας, τρίτον δὲ λειφθῆναι νήπιον, ἀφ' οὗ τὸ γένος εἰς τούσδε καθήκειν. Μήτηρ δὲ αὐτοῖς ἀδελφὴ τοῦ φιλοσόφου Κάτωνος, ὃν μάλιστα Ῥωμαίων ὁ πρεσβύτερος ἐζήλωσε Βροῦτος, θεῖον ὄντα καὶ κηδεστὴν ὕστερον γενόμενον. Πορκίᾳ γὰρ δὴ τῇ **. 18. Ἐπὶ δὲ τοῖς Βρούτοις Γάϊος Κάσσιος ἦν ἐν τῇ συνωμοσίᾳ, ὁ Κράσσῳ ἐπὶ Παρθυαίους συστρατευσάμενος, καὶ Σερβίλιος Κάσκας, ὃς δὴ καὶ πρῶτος σπάσαι τὸ ξίφος κατὰ τοῦ Καίσαρος λέγεται. Ἐπιστάντος δὲ τοῦ καιροῦ, καθ' ὃν ἔδει τὴν βουλὴν συνελθοῦσαν χρηματίσαι τι περὶ τῶν κοινῶν, παρῆν καὶ ὁ Καῖσαρ ἐς τὸ βουλευτήριον, μεθέξων τῶν γινομένων. Ὡς δὲ τὰ ξίφη διεκόμισαν ἐν κιβωτίῳ τινὶ κατακρύψαντες, τρόπῳ δὲ συμβολαίων παρὰ τὸ συνέδριον ἤγαγον, αὐτίκα ἀναστάντες καὶ περιστάντες τὸν Καίσαρα κατετίτρωσκον. Ἐπιθεμένων δὲ αὐτῶν, τὰ μὲν πρῶτα διώθει τοὺς ἐπιόντας, καὶ κατὰ δύναμιν ἠμύνετο· ἐπεὶ δὲ τὸν Βροῦτον γυμνῷ τῷ ξίφει ἐπ' αὐτὸν χωροῦντα καὶ σὺν τοῖς πολεμίοις τεταγμένον ἐθεάσατο, ἐγκαλυψάμενος παρέδωκε παίειν τὸ σῶμα. Τρεῖς γοῦν καὶ κʹ πληγὰς ἀναδεξάμενος ἀναλίσκεται, ἐτῶν (δὲ) τῇ πόλει μετὰ τὸν ἀνοικισμὸν ἐννέα που πρὸς τοῖς ψʹ γεγονότων. Tzetzes Chil. III, 23, v. 16: Ἡ Πτολεμαίου σύναιμις, δέσποινα Κλεοπάτρα ... αὕτη σὺν ἀρχιτέκτονι Κυπρίῳ ∆εξιφάνει τὴν θάλασσαν χερσώσασα τὴν τῆς Ἀλεξανδρείας ὅσον πρὸς τετραστάδιον, εἴτε μικρόν τι πλέον, τὸν πύργον ἐξειργάσατο τὸν μέγιστον τῆς Φάρου, ὁλκάσι φῶς σωτήριον μᾶλλον ἐν ζάλῃ φαίνειν. Μέμνηται μὲν Βιργίλιος ταύτης τῆς Κλεοπάτρας, Λουκιανὸς καὶ Γαληνὸς καὶ Πλούταρχος σὺν τούτοις, ∆ιόδωρος, Γεώργιος ὁ χρονικὸς σὺν ἄλλοις, καὶ Ἰωάννης μετ' αὐτοὺς Ἀντιοχεὺς ὑστέρως. 73 Exc. Salm.: Γάϊος Ἰούλιος Καῖσαρ νέος ὢν ἔδοξε καθ' ὕπνους συνουσιάζειν τῇ ἰδίᾳ μητρὶ, καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἀγέλαις αὐτοῦ ἵππος ἐτέχθη χηλοὺς ἔχων ἀντὶ ὁπλῆς, καὶ οὐδένα ἕτερον ἀναβάτην ἐδέχετο, εἰ μὴ αὐτὸν μόνον, ὡς ὁ Βουκέφαλος τὸν Ἀλέξανδρον. Πρὸ δὲ μιᾶς ἡμέρας τοῦ θανάτου αὐτοῦ, ἔδοξεν ὁρᾶν ἡ γυνὴ αὐτοῦ πεπτωκυῖαν τὴν οἰκίαν αὐτοῦ, καὶ αὐτὸν τραυματίαν καὶ αἵματι κατάρρυτον ἐμπεσεῖν τοῖς κόλποις αὐτῆς. Προϊόντι δὲ αὐτῷ ἔδωκέ τις ἐν χάρτῃ τὴν κατ' αὐτοῦ ἐπιβουλήν· ὁ δὲ ἄλλο τι νομίσας εἶναι, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μὴ ἀναγνοὺς, ἀλλὰ δοὺς τοῖς ὑπογραφεῦσιν, ἐσφάγη. 74 Exc. De ins.: Ἐπειδὴ Καῖσαρ ἀνῃρέθη κατὰ τὸ βουλευτήριον, αὖθις ἐμφύλιος ἀνήφθη πόλεμος.