the one side, on "double entendre" and
plain speaking. Poetus had advocated the propriety of calling a spade
a spade, and Cicero shows him the inexpediency. Then we come suddenly
upon his letter to Atticus, written on the 7th of April, three weeks
after the fall of Caesar.

Mommsen endeavors to explain the intention of Caesar in the adoption of
the names by which he chose to be called, and in his acceptance of those
which, without his choosing, were imposed upon him.[169] He has done it
perhaps with too great precision, but he leaves upon our minds a correct
idea of the resolution which Caesar had made to be King, Emperor,
Dictator, or what not, before he started for Macedonia, B.C. 49,[170]
and the disinclination which moved him at once to proclaim himself a
tyrant. Dictator was the title which he first assumed, as being
temporary, Roman, and in a certain degree usual. He was Dictator for an
indefinite period, annually, for ten years, and, when he died, had been
designated Dictator for life. He had already been, for the last two
years, named "Imperator" for life; but that title--which I think to have
had a military sound in men's ears, though it may, as Mommsen says,
imply also civil rule--was not enough to convey to men all that it was
necessary that they should understand. Till the moment of his triumph
had come, and that "Veni, vidi, vici" had been flaunted in the eyes of
Rome--till Caesar, though he had been ashamed to call himself a king, had
consented to be associated with the gods--Brutus, Cassius, and those
others, sixty in number we are told, who became the conspirators, had
hardly realized the fact that the Republic was altogether at an end. A
bitter time had come upon them; but it was softened by the personal
urbanity of the victor. But now, gradually, the truth was declaring
itself, and the conspiracy was formed. I am inclined to think that
Shakspeare has been right in his conception of the plot. "I do fear the
people choose Caesar for their king," says Brutus. "I had as lief not be,
as live to be in awe of such a thing as I myself," says Cassius.[171] It
had come home to them at length that Caesar was to be king, and therefore
they conspired.

It would be a difficult task in the present era to recommend to my
readers the murderers of Caesar as honest, loyal politicians, who did
for their country, in its emergency, the best that the circumstances
would allow. The feeling of the world in regard to murder h