Quippe M. Brutus et C. Cassius, nunc metuentes arma Antonii, nunc ad augendam eius invidiam simulantes se metuere, testati edictis libenter se vel in perpetuo exilio victuros, dum rei publicae constaret concordia, nec ullam belli civilis praebituros materiam, plurimum sibi honoris esse in conscientia facti sui, profecti urbe atque Italia, intento ac pari animo sine auctoritate publica provincias exercitusque occupaverant et, ubicumque ipsi essent, praetexentes esse rem publicam, pecunias etiam, quae ex transmarinis provinciis Romam ab quaestoribus deportabantur, a volentibus acceperant.
It is true that these two men had issued manifestoes'at first in real fear of armed violence at the hands of Antony, and later to increase Antonys unpopularity, with the pretence of fear ' manifestos in which they declared that for the sake of ensuring harmony in the republic they were even ready to live in perpetual exile, that they would furnish no grounds for civil war, and that the consciousness of the service they had rendered by their act was ample reward. But, when they had once left Rome and Italy behind them, by deliberate agreement and without government sanction they had taken possession of provinces and armies, and under the pretence that the republic existed wherever they were, they had gone so far as to receive from the quaestors, with their own consent, it is true, the moneys which these men were conveying to Rome from the provinces across the sea.
final_alignments\Velleius_Paterculus_Compendium.json