It has been ever
allowed, without restriction or rebuke, to pass our judgment upon those
whom death has withdrawn from the influence of affection and hate. Are
Cassius and Brutus now in arms? do they at present fill with armed troops
the fields of Philippi? or do I fire the Roman People, by inflammatory
harangues, with the spirit of civil rage? Brutus and Cassius, now above
seventy years slain, are still known in their statues, which even the
conqueror did not abolish: and as these exhibit their persons, why not the
historian their characters? Impartial posterity to every man repays his
proper praise: nor will there be wanting such as, if my death is
determined, will not only revive the story of Cassius and Brutus, but even
my story." Having thus said he withdrew from the Senate, and ended his
life by abstinence. The Fathers condemned the books to be by the Aediles
burned; but they still continued concealed and dispersed: hence we may
justly mock the stupidity of those, who imagine that they can, by present
power, extinguish the lights and memory of succeeding times: for, quite
otherwise, the punishment of writers exalts the credit of the writings:
nor did ever foreign kings, or any else, reap other fruit from it, than
infamy to themselves, and glory to the sufferers.
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