to appear in good
spirits, on pain of death if they should refuse to obey. So they were
forced to rejoice over the common evils as over blessings. Yet why need I
have mentioned it, when they voted to those men (the triumvirs, I mean)
civic crowns and other distinctions as to benefactors and saviors of
the State? They did not think of being held to blame because they were
killing a few, but wished to receive additional praise for not putting
more out of the way. And to the populace they once openly stated that
they had emulated neither the cruelty of Marius and Sulla so as to incur
hatred, nor the mildness of Caesar so as to be despised and as a result
become objects of a conspiracy.

[-14-] Such were the conditions of the murders; but many other unusual
proceedings took place in regard to the property of persons left alive.
They actually announced, as if they were just and humane rulers, that
they would give to the widows of the slain their dowries, to the male
children a tenth, and to the female children a twentieth of the property
of each one's father. This was not, however, granted save in a few
cases: of the rest all the possessions without exception were ruthlessly
plundered. In the first place they levied upon all the houses in the City
and those in the rest of Italy a yearly rent, which was the entire amount
from dwellings which people had let, and half from such as they occupied
themselves, with reference to the value of the domicile. Again, from
those who had lands they took away half of the proceeds. Besides, they
had the soldiers get their support free from the cities in which they
were wintering, and distributed them to various rural districts,
pretending that they were sent to take charge of confiscated territory
or that of persons who still opposed them. For this last class they had
termed likewise enemies because they had not changed their attitude
before the appointed day. So that the whole country outside the towns was
also pillaged. The autocrats allowed the soldiers to do this to the end
that, having their pay before the work, they might devote all their
energy to their commanders' interests, and promised to give them cities
and lands: And with this in view they further assigned to them persons to
divide the land and settle them. The mass of the soldiers was made loyal
by this course: of the more prominent they tempted some with the goods of
those that had been despatched by lowering the price on cert