FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   >>  
h all honors, human and divine, had been ascribed to Caesar. He then added a few words of his own. The bed was then taken up, with the body upon it, and borne out into the Forum, preparatory to conveying it to the pile which had been prepared for it upon the Field of Mars, A question, however, here arose among the multitude assembled in respect to the proper place for burning the body. The people seemed inclined to select the most honorable place which could be found within the limits of the city. Some proposed a beautiful temple on the Capitoline Hill. Others wished to take it to the senate-house, where he had been slain. The Senate, and those who were less inclined to pay extravagant honors to the departed hero, were in favor of some more retired spot, under pretense that the buildings of the city would be endangered by the fire. This discussion was fast becoming a dispute, when it was suddenly ended by two men, with swords at their sides and knees in their hands, forcing their way through the crowd with lighted torches, and setting the bed and its canopy on fire where it lay. [Illustration: BURNING OF CAESAR'S BODY.] [Sidenote: The body burned in the Forum.] This settled the question, and the whole company were soon in the wildest excitement with the work of building up a funeral pile upon the spot. At first they brought fagots and threw upon the fire, then benches from the neighboring courts and porticoes, and then any thing combustible which came to hand. The honor done to the memory of a deceased hero was, in some sense, in proportion to the greatness of his funeral pile, and all the populace on this occasion began soon to seize every thing they could find, appropriate and unappropriate, provided that it would increase the flame. The soldiers threw on their lances and spears, the musicians their instruments, and others stripped off the cloths and trappings from the furniture of the procession, and heaped them upon the burning pile. [Sidenote: The conflagration.] So fierce and extensive was the fire, that it spread to some of the neighboring houses, and required great efforts to prevent a general conflagration. The people, too, became greatly excited by the scene. They lighted torches by the fire, and went to the houses of Brutus and Cassius, threatening vengeance upon them for the murder of Caesar. The authorities succeeded though with infinite difficulty, in protecting Brutus and Cassius from the viole
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   >>  



Top keywords:
conflagration
 

burning

 

people

 

inclined

 

Sidenote

 
funeral
 
neighboring
 

houses

 
torches
 

lighted


Brutus

 

Caesar

 
honors
 

Cassius

 
question
 

authorities

 
combustible
 
porticoes
 

courts

 

succeeded


memory

 

prevent

 

deceased

 

vengeance

 

efforts

 

murder

 

extensive

 

benches

 

wildest

 

excitement


company

 
burned
 

settled

 

building

 

brought

 
fagots
 

infinite

 
difficulty
 

spread

 
protecting

threatening
 

proportion

 
stripped
 
instruments
 

lances

 

spears

 
musicians
 

cloths

 
trappings
 

greatly