to imitate. He complains[1] that though he had no choice but to obey Cæsar's commands, this has not shielded him from the blame of his fellow-citizens. "The unpopularity which attached to my conduct, most undeserved though it was, gave me a lesson how delightful liberty is, and how wretched a life passed under the dominion of another. Therefore if the question is of the revival of the absolute power of one man, whosoever that man may be, I profess myself his enemy."
The conspirators during the first weeks after the assassination seem to have been without any intelligent plan of action. Decimus Brutus writes[2] at the beginning of April as if there were no resource for them but exile, and Marcus Brutus and Cassius were thankful to accept a commission to look after the corn-supply as a pretext for retirement. Trebonius seems to have gone at his leisure to the East.[3] Cicero himself is perplexed and baffled. Arguing from the precedents of Greek politics, the free State ought to have resumed its life on the removal of the despot, but on the contrary he has to "grieve over a fate which has never befallen any nation before, to have rid ourselves of our master, and yet not to have restored the Republic."[4]
Antony, whom the chance of the Dictator's dispositions had left as consul, squandered the treasures
