Caesar

'Antony is not respectable,' Cassius said.

'The same charge could be levelled at me, old fruit,' Casca said.

'Your case is different, and not only because you can keep a secret in your cups, which Antony can't. Mouse, even if I agreed with everything that you have said — and you have argued the case for Antony with an eloquence of which Cicero might be proud — there remains one insuperable objection: we will never secure Marcus Brutus if he thinks Antony is engaged in the enterprise, for Antony is everything Brutus despises and detests.'

'Bugger Markie,' I said.

'Not me, old boy,' Casca said. 'You'll have to find another candidate for that job.'

My doubts grew when young Cato arrived, fresh-faced, handsome, incurious. He brought good news, he said. His sister Porcia was exercising all her charms ('Bloody few, I'd have thought,' muttered Casca) to persuade her husband. Brutus was half-convinced. He had written some pages of an essay on the virtues of the Republic. It was provisionally entitled Against the Government of a Single Person.

I remarked that this did not really take us any further.

'Besides, the Republic is easier to applaud than to achieve.'

'But I must tell you something else,' Cato said. 'Supporters of Caesar have crowned his statues with royal diadems. And the mob cheered them as they did so.'

'Well,' Cassius said, 'that warns us that delay is dangerous. Cato, will you accompany me to Brutus? It is time to twist his arm in order to release the obstruction that holds his noble spirit from action.'

Even now, I do not know how Cassius truly regarded Brutus. The note of irony was rarely absent from his voice when he spoke of him; and yet no one could have set higher store by his adherence to our party. Perhaps the truth is that Cassius both admired and despised him, valued and resented him, distrusted his capacity and yet felt the need of his reputation for virtue. Perhaps even Cassius shared the doubts that disturbed me as to the morality of our plan, and, feeling such uncertainty, thought it could be banished only if Brutus, whose virtue none could reproach, collaborated with us. I do not know. I know only that his insistence that we must recruit Brutus was the chief cause of our failure, as I shall prove, given time to do so.

Casca and I left Cassius' house together. Our spirits were low. Heavy clouds, threatening snow, had blown up from the northeast. We both felt we had committed ourselves to an uncertain enterprise. Our trust in Cassius had diminished. And yet…

'Have you considered, Mouse, that we could still blow the whole bloody thing? Tell Caesar what is planned, and so… Yes, of course you have, and we won't, will we?'

'No, we won't. Whatever the risk, we've both been brought to this point. That charade this morning… did you see how at the third offering his hands clung to the crown?'

'I saw.'

'There's a Greek word.' 'There would be.' 'Megalomania.' 'Well, bugger that.'

'If you say so.'

'No, I've just spotted something I fancy. See you later, old bean. Be good.'

And Casca left me in pursuit of a curly headed epicene with a dancer's gait. I saw him take the boy by the elbow, and the pair disappeared up a narrow alley.

The snow came, lay in the city for two days, silencing the noise of wagons. Then the weather turned wet and windy, staying like that for the rest of February. Cassius reported that Markie was still wrestling with his conscience, but that both he and young Cato were confident that Porcia, reason, and the public interest would prevail. He told me that Brutus was like a general compelled to yield one position after another: 'Finally, he will be trapped in the citadel from which he will find only one escape.'

Without seeking authority from Cassius, I sounded out Mark Antony. He admitted that he was perturbed by Caesar's state of mind.

'That bitch the Queen has him in a vice. He's no longer capable of thinking straight.'

I was convinced that he understood my purpose; yet he affected not to. Nevertheless, he laid his finger along his nose; and it seemed to me that this gesture indicated that though he would have no hand in the business, he would not seek to obstruct it.

'Caesar's not immortal,' he said as he left. 'And he's a lot older than we are. This Parthian campaign will probably finish him off — his health's not what it was, you know. And then things will revert to normal — whatever that can be said to be.'

Trebonius pressed Cassius to include Cicero in our plans. He received some support from Metellus Cimber, but the rest of us were opposed.

'We shall need Cicero,' I said, 'after the deed. Can anyone doubt that he will approve it? But till that moment is reached he is more likely to be a hindrance than a help in our enterprise.'

My opinion carried weight, and Trebonius desisted from his attempt to persuade us.

Diadems appeared again on Caesar's statues. This time two noble tribunes, men of exemplary Republican virtue, Flavius and Marullus, tore them off with their own hands and cast them on the ground. This action received the approbation of the mob, though some said later that the tribunes themselves had seen to it that their defiance would be witnessed only by those whom they knew to be favourable, and whom indeed they had with them by design. Caesar was incensed by what he termed their insolence. Exercising the authority which he possessed as Perpetual Dictator, he deposed the tribunes, and then, when they were private citizens and no longer protected by their office, had them cast into prison. Of all his tyrannical acts, this made the greatest impression on those who were wavering, eager for the restoration of the Republic, yet held back by fear of Caesar. For they saw that if he could treat the most honourable office of the tribunate with such cavalier authority, he had become capable of anything.

Casca laughed: 'It's rich to remember, ain't it, that the ostensible cause of the civil war was the treatment meted out by the Senate to the tribunes who supported Caesar.'

'Yes,' I said, 'and the theme of his memoirs of the war was to insist on 'with what great zeal I sought peace'. What does he seek now?'

That question hung over all our deliberations, and the answers we suspected fortified many minds.

'Your cousin inches towards a resolution,' young Cato said. 'This business of the tribunes has made a deep impression on him.'

The Kalends of March ushered in spring. There was a lightness in the air calling one to action. The sky was soft and blue and the air fragrant. My soul was filled with eagerness. I rose early in the morning, leaving Longina beautiful in happy sleep, and sought out Cassius. I apologised for the early hour.

'Not at all. I always rise at first light. I study philosophy for an hour, then practise fencing or do gymnastics. When you reach my age, it is necessary to keep both mind and body in training. Otherwise deterioration is rapid. Well, things go merrily, don't they?'

His insouciance annoyed me. It belied his reputation. Cassius was seen, by most, as saturnine, sour, pessimistic.

'We are almost there,' he said. 'I dined with Marcus Brutus last night. He is on the point of committing himself. Then we must move quickly.'

'Before he changes his mind, you mean, or loses his nerve?'

'If you choose to put it like that. But, as I've said before, you underestimate him. He is scrupulous, and that is to his credit. The Senate is scheduled to meet on the Ides of March, ironically in Pompey's theatre.'

(This was on account of a fire in the Senate House, necessitating repairs.)

'I have marked that as an appropriate day.'

'Very well,' I said. 'I'm agreed. I shall send Longina to the country.'

'Is that necessary? Might it give rise to suspicion?'

'Her pregnancy will serve as excuse.'

'You look troubled.'

'Then my looks betray my state of mind.'

What disturbed me, as I explained to him at length, was that no preparations had been made for anything beyond the deed itself. We seemed to be working on an assumption that everything would fall comfortably into place. I didn't believe that. There would be danger. We might have need of troops to maintain order. It couldn't be assumed that all Caesar's partisans would submit to our will. Antony's position had to be considered. I suggested that the Ninth Legion, which was devoted to me, should be put on the alert; I was ready to give orders that it