Add to all this his cruel proscriptions,
and the massacre of so many citizens, his seizing from the public and
distributing to his own creatures so many lands and possessions; a
violation of property not justified even by those who gained by it. But,
allowing him to dedicate to the Manes of the Dictator the lives of Brutus
and Cassius (though more to his honour had it been to have postponed his
own personal hate to public good), did he not betray the young Pompey by
an insidious peace, betray Lepidus by a deceitful show of friendship? Did
he not next ensnare Marc Anthony, first by treaties, those of Tarentum and
Brundusium; then by a marriage, that of his sister Octavia? And did not
Anthony at last pay with his life the penalty of that subdolous alliance?
After this, no doubt there was peace, but a bloody peace; bloody in the
tragical defeat of Lollius, and that of Varus, in Germany; and at Rome,
the Varrones, the Egnatii, the Julii (those illustrious names) were put to
death." Nor was his domestic life spared upon this occasion. "He had
arbitrarily robbed Nero of his wife big with child by her husband; and
mocked the Gods by consulting the Priests; whether religion permitted him
to marry her before her delivery, or obliged him to stay till after.
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