become very jealous of his increasing fame.

From boyhood Caesar had been a mixer with the common people, and in midnight
hours in Rome, among tradesmen, merchants, students, authors, sailors and
soldiers, he became imbued with their wants and impulsive nature. He had no
reason to doubt or oppress the people.

As commander of invincible troops in Spain, Gaul, Germany and Britain,
Caesar had secured a world-wide reputation, for the eagles of his victorious
legions had swept across the mountains and seas to the shore end of Europe
and screamed in triumph among the palms and sands of Africa and Asia!

Caesar was a poet, orator, historian, warrior and statesman, and the
imperial families and politicians of Rome, who were forced to sit in the
shade of his triumphs and glory, felt a secret pang of jealousy at the
stride of this colossal character.

He was the pride and idol of his soldiers, and whether in the forests of
Gaul and Germany, the swamps of Britain, mountains of Spain, or among
Ionian isles, his presence was ever worth a thousand men in battle action.

His plans were mathematical, his soul sublime and his purpose eternal
victory!

Bravery and Caesar were synonymous terms, and the little, mean, pismire
ambitions of Roman politicians he despised, striding over their corrupt
schemes for pelf and office like a winter whirlwind.

Brutus, while professing horror at the contemplated assassination of his
friend and natural father Caesar, lent a willing ear and sympathetic voice
to the prime conspirator--Cassius; and although seemingly dragged into the
murderous plot, he was in heart the grand villain of the conspiracy,
believing he might rise to supreme control of the Roman Empire when Julius
the Great lay weltering in his heroic blood.

Brutus was a dastard, an ingrate, a coward and a murderer, and no pretense
of patriotism can save him from the contempt and condemnation of mankind.
There is no justification for assassination!

The death of Caesar was the first great blow in the final destruction of the
Roman Empire, for up to this time the people had a voice in electing their
tribunes, consuls and governors, and were consulted as to the burden of
taxation, although many of their previous rulers had been terrible tyrants.

Brutus and Cassius, and their coconspirators, city senators, who dipped
their hands in Caesar's sacred blood, were finally driven from all political
power, their estates confiscated, fleeing li