CICERO. 57 execution of the conspirators. But Caesar opposed the confiscation of their goods, not thinking it fair that those Avho had rejected the mildest part of his sentence should avail themselves of the severest. And when many in- sisted 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 con- spirators; they were not all together in one place, but the several prsetors 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 mid- dle of the market>place, a circle of the most eminent citi- zens encompassing and protecting- him. The people, aflfrighted at what was domg, passed along in silence, especially the young men; as if, with fear and trembKng, they were undergoing a rite of initiation into some an- cient, sacred mysteries of aristocratic power. Thus passing from the market-place, and coming to the gaol, he deliv- ered 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 man}^ 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 saviour and founder of his country. A bright light shone through the streets from the
