Chapter 53

On all sides there was a rush to defend Cassius; for it was his constant habit to have with him a numerous armed bodyguard of Beronians and ex-soldiers. These intercepted all the other would-be assassins who were following up behind, and among them Calpurnius Salvianus and Manilius Tusculus. Minucius was caught as he sought to escape through the stones which were lying in the street, and was escorted to Cassius, who had now been carried home. Racilius took refuge in a friend’s house near by, until he should learn for certain whether Cassius was done for. L. Laterensis had no doubt about it, and so hastened joyfully into the camp and congratulated the native troops and those of the Second legion, who, as he knew, cherished a particular hatred for Cassius: and there the mob hoisted him on to the platform and hailed him as praetor. There was in fact no man, either born in the province, like the troops of the native legion, or else by this time qualified as a provincial by virtue of long residence—and the Second legion came into this category—who had not shared in the hatred which the entire province felt towards Cassius for the Thirtieth and Twenty-First legions, which Caesar had allotted to Longinus, had been enrolled in Italy within the last few months, while the Fifth legion had been raised in the province but recently.