HKB
the threats of Antony, he left Rome to go and take possession of the province which Cæsar had caused to be assigned to him. (Cicero, Epist. ad Atticum, XIV. 13.)
He appears, however, to have acted but feebly in favour of the party he had embraced. Antony, having obtained from the people, in exchange for Macedonia, the province commanded by Brutus (Appian, Civil Wars, III. 30), the latter refused to abandon his government, and, supported by Cicero, he obtained from the Senate an edict maintaining him in it (Cicero, Philippic., III. 4.--Appian, Civil War, III. 45), which led to an armed contest between the two competitors. Pursued by his rival, Brutus threw himself into Modena, and there sustained a long siege (Appian, Civil Wars, III. 49.--Titus Livius, Epitome, CXVII), which had for its final result the celebrated battle in which Antony was defeated. D. Brutus, overlooked among new actors in this sanguinary drama, remained in it almost a mere spectator. (Dio Cassius, XLVI. 40.) He then ranged himself on the side of Octavius, yet without the existence of any very close or very sincere intimacy between these two men. He continued to exercise an important command during the war, but fortune was not long in turning against him. Pressed by Antony, who had united with Lepidus, and threatened personally by the prosecutions which Octavius, armed with the law Pedia, was directing against the murderers of Cæsar (Titus Livius, Epitome, CXX.--Dio Cassius, XLVI. 53), he found himself deserted by his troops, and, after a vain attempt to cross into Macedonia, he directed his steps with a small escort towards Aquileia; but a Gaulish chief, named Camillus, betrayed towards him the rites of hospitality, kept him prisoner, and sent information of what he had done to Antony. The old lieutenant of Cæsar immediately sent Furius with a party of cavalry, who slew Brutus, and carried away his head. (Appian, Civil Wars, III. 97, 98.--Velleius Paterculus, III. 63, 64.) Brutus was one of the correspondents of Cicero, who gives him praise, especially for his constancy in friendship, of which he was certainly little worthy.
Publius Sulpicius Rufus, who belonged to the same family as S. Sulpicius Galba, served, in 705, the cause of Cæsar in Spain (Cæsar, De Bello Civili, I. 74); he commanded in the following year, with the title of prætor, the fleet which was cruising at Vibo, on the coast of Bruttium (Cæsar, De Bella Civili, III. 101); subsequently he obtained the government of Illyria, a country where he had served in the ranks of the Cæsarians, and consequently succeeded Q. Cornificius (Cæsar, De Bello Afric.*, 10; *De Bello Alexandrin., 42). A letter of Cicero, addressed to him (Epist. Familiar., XIII. 77), shows that he was still in that province in 709. We know nothing certain relating to his actions. It has been supposed with probability that he is the same with a P. Sulpicius, censor under the triumvirate, and mentioned in a Latin inscription (Tabula Collatina), to which Drumann refers (tom. i., p. 528).