2. However, though there were apparently three
who participated all power, yet, in fact, only two were actually
possessed of it, since Lep'idus was admitted at first merely to curb
the mutual jealousy of Antony and Augustus, and was possessed neither
of interest in the army, nor authority among the people. 3. Their
earliest care was to punish those whom they had formerly marked for
vengeance. Horten'sius, Dru'sus, and Quintil'ius Va'rus, all men of
the first rank in the commonwealth, either killed themselves or were
slain. A senator and his son were ordered to cast lots for their
lives, but both refused; the father voluntarily gave himself up to the
executioner, and the son stabbed himself before his face. Another
begged to have the rites of burial after his death: to which Augus'tus
replied, "that he would soon find a grave in the vultures that would
devour him." 4. But chiefly the people lamented to see the head of
Brutus sent to Rome to be thrown at the foot of Caesar's statue. His
ashes, however, were sent to his wife Portia, Cato's daughter, who,
following the examples of both her husband and father, killed herself,
by swallowing coals.
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