[114] When they thought that they had a sufficient number, and that it would not be wise to divulge the plot to any more, they pledged each other without oaths or sacrifices, yet no one changed his mind or betrayed the secret. They sought a time and place. Time was pressing because Cæsar was to depart on his campaign four days hence and would thereupon have a body-guard of soldiers. They chose the Senate as the place, believing that, even though the senators did not know of it beforehand, they would join heartily when they saw the deed. It was said that this happened in the case of Romulus when he changed from a king to a tyrant. They thought that this deed, like that one of old, taking place in open Senate, would seem to be performed not by private plotters, but in behalf of the country, and that, being in the public interest, there would be no danger from Cæsar's army. At the same time they thought the honor would be theirs because the public would not be ignorant that they took the lead. For these reasons they unanimously chose the Senate as the place, but they were not agreed as to the mode. Some thought that Antony ought to be killed also because he was consul with Cæsar, and was his most powerful friend, and the one of most repute with the army; but Brutus said that they would win the glory of tyrannicide from the death of Cæsar alone, because that would be the killing of a king. If they should kill his friends also, the deed would be imputed to private enmity and to the Pompeian faction.
The Civil Wars. Appian. Horace White. London. MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. 1899.
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