1Next came the following. 1When, after Caesar was killed, the state seemed to be in the hands of the Bruti and Cassius, and the whole community had turned towards them, he was on such terms with Marcus Brutus that that young man was no more intimate with any of his contemporaries than with this old man, and he made him not only the chief of his counsels but also his companion at table. 3A plan was devised by certain men to set up a private treasury for Caesar's assassins, funded by the Roman knights. 3They thought this could easily be done if the leading men of that order contributed money.
3So Atticus was approached by Gaius Flavius, a close friend of Brutus, with the request that he be willing to take the lead in this matter. 4But he, who believed that services should be rendered to friends without taking sides, and had always kept himself clear of such schemes, replied that if Brutus wished to make any use of his resources, he could use them as far as they allowed, but that he would neither confer with anyone about this matter nor join with anyone in it. 4Thus that united band was broken up by the dissent of this one man. 5Not long afterwards Antony began to gain the upper hand, so that Brutus and Cassius, giving up the care of the provinces which had been given them for form's sake by the consul, and despairing of their cause, went into exile.
6Atticus, who had refused to contribute money along with the rest to that party while it flourished, sent Brutus a gift of a hundred thousand sesterces when he was cast down and leaving Italy. 6To the same man, though absent himself, he ordered three hundred thousand to be given in Epirus; and he neither flattered Antony any the more for his power nor abandoned those whose cause was lost.