Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/347

MARCUS BRUTUS. 339 perator. Now (as it usually happens in business of great concern and where many friends and many commanders are engaged), several jealousies of each other and matters of private accusation having passed between Brutus and Cassius, they resolved, before they entered upon any other busmess, immediately to withdraw into some apartment; where, the door being shut and they two alone, they began first to expostulate, then to dispute hotly, and accuse each other; and finally were so transported into passion as to fall to hard words, and at last burst out into tears. Their friends who stood without were amazed, hearing them loud and angiy, and feared lest some mischief might follow, but yet durst not interrupt them, being commanded not to enter the room. However, Marcus Favonius, who had been an ardent admirer of Cato, and, not so much by his learning or wisdom as by his wild, vehement manner, maintained the character of a philosopher, was rushing in upon them, but was hindered by the attendants. But it was a hard matter to stop Favonius, wherever his wildness hurried him; for he was fierce in all his behavior, and ready to do any thing to get his will. And though he was a senator, yet, thinking that one of the least of his ex- cellences, he valued himself more iipon a sort of cynical liberty of speaking what he pleased, which sometimes, indeed, did away with the rudeness and unseasona- bleness of his addresses with those that would interpret it in jest. This Favonius, breaking by force through those that kept the doors, entered into the chamber, and with a set voice declaimed the verses that Homer makes Nestor use, — Be ruled, for I am older than ye both.* ddress to Agame- the Iliad (I., 251 lies in the midst of Dog " is of course their quarrel, in the first book of derivation of the term Cy«jc. They • Nestor's address to Agame- the Iliad (I., 259). " Impudent mnon and Achilles in the midst of Dog" is of course pointed at the