Kitap Caius
12.5
But he took his failure overmuch to heart, and what is more, when his enemies were exulting over him, he told them, it is said, with more boldness than was fitting, that they were laughing with sardonic laughter, and were not aware of the great darkness that enveloped them in consequence of his public measures.Blass compares the laughter of the doomed suitors in Odyssey, xx. 346 ff.—the fatuous smile of men whose fate is sealed, though they are unaware of it.
13.1
The enemies of Caius also effected the election of Opimius as consul, and then proceeded to revoke many of the laws which Caius had secured and to meddle with the organization of the colony at Carthage. This was by way of irritating Caius, that he might furnish ground for resentment, and so be got rid of. At first he endured all this patiently, but at last, under the instigations of his friends, and especially of Fulvius, he set out to gather a fresh body of partisans for opposition to the consul.
13.2
Here, we are told, his mother also took active part in his seditious measures, by secretly hiring from foreign parts and sending to Rome men who were ostensibly reapers; for to this matter there are said to have been obscure allusions in her lettersCf. Cicero, Brutus, 58, 211. to her son. Others, however, say that Cornelia was very much displeased with these activities of her son.
13.3
Be that as it may, on the day when Opimius and his supporters were going to annul the laws, the Capitol had been occupied by both factions since earliest morning, and after the consul had offered sacrifice, one of his servants, Quintus Antyllius, as he was carrying from one place to another the entrails of the victims, said to the partisans of Fulvius: Make way for honest citizens, ye rascals! Some say, too, that along with this speech Antyllius bared his arm and waved it with an insulting gesture.
