Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/321

MARCUS BRUTUS. 313 Among the friends of Pompey there was one Caius Ligarius, whom Cfesar had pardoned, though accused for havmg been in arms agamst him. This man, not feehng so thankfiJ for having been forgiven as he felt oppressed by that power which made him need a pardon, hated Cassar, and was one of Brutus's most intimate friends. Him Brutus visited, and, finding him sick, " Ligarius," says he, " what a time have you found out to be sick in ! " At which words Ligarius, raising himself and lean- ing on his elbow, took Brutus by the hand, and said, " But, Brutus, if you are on any design worthy of 3'oiirself, I am well." From this time, they tried the inclinations of all their acquaintance that they durst trust, and communicated the secret to them, and took into the design not only their familiar friends, but as many as they believed bold and brave and despisers of death. For which reason they concealed the plot from Cicero, though he was very much trusted and as well beloved by them all, lest, to his own disposition, which was naturally timorous, adding now the wariness and caution of old age, by his weigh- . ing, as he would do, every particular, that he might not make one step without the greatest security, he should blunt the edge of their forwardness and resolution in a business which required all the despatch imaginable. As indeed there were also two others that were companions of Brutus, Statilius the Epicurean, and Favonius the ad- mirer of Cato, whom he left out for this reason : as he was conversing one day with them, trying them at a dis- tance, and proposing some such question to be disputed of as among philosophers, to see what ojiinion they were of, Favonius declared his judgment to be that a civil war was worse than the most illegal monarchy ; and Statilius held, that, to bring himself into troubles and danger upon the account of evil or foolish men, did not become a man