on about Caesar himself, and so filled the senate with
anger and resolution, that a decree was passed for the execution of the
conspirators. But Caesar opposed the confiscation of their goods, not
thinking it fair that those who had rejected the mildest part of his
sentence should avail themselves of the severest. And when many insisted
upon it, he appealed to the tribunes, but they would do nothing; till
Cicero himself yielding, remitted that part of the sentence.

After this, Cicero went out with the senate to the conspirators; they
were not all together in one place, but the several praetors had them,
some one, some another, in custody. And first he took Lentulus from the
Palatine, and brought him by the Sacred Street, through the middle of
the market-place, a circle of the most eminent citizens encompassing and
protecting him. The people, affrighted at what was doing, passed along
in silence, especially the young men; as if, with fear and trembling,
they were undergoing a rite of initiation into some ancient, sacred
mysteries of aristocratic power. Thus passing from the market-place, and
coming to the gaol, he delivered Lentulus to the officer, and commanded
him to execute him; and after him Cethegus, and so all the rest in
order, he brought and delivered up to execution. And when he saw many
of the conspirators in the market-place, still standing together
in companies, ignorant of what was done, and waiting for the night,
supposing the men were still alive and in a possibility of being
rescued, he called out in a loud voice, and said, "They did live"; for
so the Romans, to avoid inauspicious language, name those that are dead.

It was now evening, when he returned from the market-place to his own
house, the citizens no longer attending him with silence, nor in order,
but receiving him, as he passed, with acclamations and applauses, and
saluting him as the savior and founder of his country. A bright light
shone through the streets from the lamps and torches set up at the
doors, and the women showed lights from the tops of the houses, to honor
Cicero, and to behold him returning home with a splendid train of the
principal citizens; amongst whom were many who had conducted great wars,
celebrated triumphs, and added to the possessions of the Roman empire,
both by sea and land. These, as they passed along with him, acknowledged
to one another, that though the Roman people were indebted to several
officers and commanders