As, therefore, the senate had ratified all
Caesar's acts without distinction, he formed a plan of making him rule
when dead as imperiously as he had done when living. 22. Being
possessed of Caesar's books of accounts, he so far gained over his
secretary as to make him insert whatever he thought proper. By these
means, great sums of money, which Caesar would never have bestowed,
were distributed among the people; and every man who had any seditious
designs against the government was there sure to find a gratuity. 23.
Things being in this situation, Antony demanded of the senate that
Caesar's funeral obsequies should be performed. This they could not
decently forbid, as they had never declared him a tyrant:
accordingly, the body was brought forth into the Forum with the utmost
solemnity; and Antony, who charged himself with these last duties of
friendship, began his operations upon the passions of the people by
the prevailing motives of private interest. 24. He first read to them
Caesar's will, in which he made Octavius, his sister's grandson, his
heir, permitting him to take the name of Caesar, and bequeathed him
three parts of his private fortune; which, in case of his death,
Brutus was to have inherited.
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