62.4
Those, however, who were eager for the change, and fixed their eyes on Brutus alone, or on him first, did not venture to talk with him directly, but by night they covered his praetorial tribune and chair with writings, most of which were of this sort: Thou art asleep, Brutus, or, Thou art not Brutus.Cf. the Brutus chapters viii., ix. When Cassius perceived that the ambition of Brutus was somewhat stirred by these things, he was more urgent with him than before, and pricked him on, having himself also some private grounds for hating Caesar; these I have mentioned in the Life of Brutus.Cf. the Brutus chapters viii., ix.
62.5
Moreover, Caesar actually suspected him, so that he once said to his friends: What, think ye, doth Cassius want? I like him not over much, for he is much too pale. And again, we are told that when Antony and Dolabella were accused to him of plotting revolution, Caesar said: I am not much in fear of these fat, long-haired fellows, but rather of those pale, thin ones, meaning Brutus and Cassius.
63.1
But destiny, it would seem, is not so much unexpected as it is unavoidable, since they say that amazing signs and apparitions were seen. Now, as for lights in the heavens, crashing sounds borne all about by night, and birds of omen coming down into the forum, it is perhaps not worth while to mention these precursors of so great an event;
63.2
but Strabo the philosopher saysProbably in the Historical Commentaries cited in the Lucullus, xxviii. 7. that multitudes of men all on fire were seen rushing up, and a soldier’s slave threw from his hand a copious flame and seemed to the spectators to be burning, but when the flame ceased the man was uninjured; he says, moreover, that when Caesar himself was sacrificing, the heart of the victim was not to be found, and the prodigy caused fear, since in the course of nature, certainly, an animal without a heart could not exist.
