Caesar strove to avert any resort to open war. […] 4 Ad fam. 11, 2 (an open letter of Brutus and Cassius). […] In no mood to be thwarted in his ambitions, he still hoped to avoid an open breach with the party of Brutus and Cassius. […] Yet Antonius may have spoken as he did in order to force his enemies to come out into the open. […] Antonius imitated his leader which came easy to his open nature: Octavianus also, though less easily perhaps.