"It makes a world of difference, what his will is," Cæsar was wont to say of Marcus Brutus; "whatever he wills, he wills it strongly."[1] Such wills Cæsar had set in deadly opposition to himself and his policy.
In the latter part of the year 45 we find Cicero engaged, though with little hope of any profitable result, on a letter of political advice addressed to Cæsar. His model was to be a treatise dedicated to Alexander by Aristotle. "There is nothing in it," he writes,[2] "which may not become a good citizen, but a citizen such as the facts of the time admit of; and all political philosophers bid us adapt our course to the circumstances." Balbus and Oppius, who always knew Cæsar's mind, objected to some portions of the letter. "Some improvements," Cicero writes,[3] "were suggested on the present order of things; and because they are improvements they are found fault with." He declined to alter what he had written, and preferred to withdraw the letter altogether. "Let us throw all these futilities to the winds," he exclaims,[4] "and hold to the half-freedom of submitting in silence and retirement."
Thus ended the last effort to deter the Dictator from the line of action which was leading him to his death. Cæsar paid a visit to Cicero at his villa near
