among them from the death
of the two Consuls. He declares also how great has been Antony's energy
in already recruiting his army. He has opened all the prisons and
workhouses, and taken the men he found there. Ventidius has joined him
with his army, and he still fears Lepidus. And young Caesar, who is
supposed to be on their side, will obey no one, and can make none obey
him. He, Decimus, cannot feed his men. He has spent all his own money
and his friends'. How is he to support seven legions?[225] On the next
day he writes again, and is still afraid of Plancus and of Lepidus and
of Pollio. And he bids Cicero look after his good name: "Stop the evil
tongues of men if you can."[226] A few days afterward Cicero writes him
a letter which he can hardly have liked to receive. What business had
Brutus to think the senate cowardly?[227] Who can be afraid of Antony
conquered who did not fear him in his strength? How should Lepidus doubt
now when victory had declared for the Republic? Though Antony may have
collected together the scrapings of the jails, Decimus is not to forget
that he, Decimus, has the whole Roman people at his back.

Cicero was probably right to encourage the General, and to endeavor to
fill him with hope. To make a man victorious you should teach him to
believe in victory. But Decimus knew the nature of the troops around
him, and was aware that every soldier was so imbued with an idea of the
power of Caesar that, though Caesar was dead, they could fight with only
half a heart against soldiers who had been in his armies. The name and
authority and high office of the two Consuls had done something with
them, and young Caesar had been with the Consuls. But both the Consuls
had been killed--which was in itself ominous--and Antony was still full
of hope, and young Caesar was not there, and Decimus was unpopular with
the men. It was of no use that Cicero should write with lofty ideas and
speak of the spirit of the Senate. Antony had received a severe check,
but the feeling of military rule which Caesar had engendered was still
there, and soldiers who would obey their officers were not going to
submit themselves to "votes of the people." Cicero in the mean time had
his letters passing daily between himself and the camps, thinking to
make up by the energy of his pen for the weakness of his party. Lepidus
sends him an account of his movements on the Rhone, declaring how he was
anxious to surround Antony. Lepidus was al