then joining Pompey in Greece late in the year. 48 BC: Pompey is defeated at Pharsalus on 9 August; Brutus is pardoned by Caesar. 46 BC: Caesar appoints Brutus governor of Cisalpine Gaul, before defeating the remnants of the Pompeians at Thapsus in April. 45 BC: Caesar appoints him praetor urbanus for 44. 44 BC: Caesar takes title of dictator perpetuo. Brutus and the other liberatores assassinate Caesar on the ides of March. He leaves Italy for Athens in late August, thence travels to Macedonia. 42 BC: Brutus campaigns successfully in southern Asia minor in January. In September and October his forces are defeated by the triumvirs, and he commits suicide. Family Legacy Brutus' historical character has undergone numerous revisions and remains divisive. Dominant views of Brutus vary by time and geography. Ancient views In the ancient world, Brutus' legacy was a topic of substantial debate. Starting from his own times and shortly after his death, he was already viewed as having killed Caesar for virtuous reasons rather than envy or hatred. For example, Plutarch, in his Life of Brutus, mentions that Brutus' enemies respected him, recounting that Antony once said that "Brutus was the only man to have slain Caesar because he was driven by the splendour and nobility of the deed, while the rest conspired against the man because they hated and envied him". Even when he was still alive, Brutus' literary output, especially the pamphlets of 52 BC against Pompey's dictatorship (De dictatura Pompei) and in support of Milo (Pro T Annio Milone) coloured him as philosophically consistent: "Brutus had singled himself out as a man who acted upon an ideal code of conduct". The main charge against him in the ancient world was that of ingratitude, viewing Brutus as ungrateful in taking Caesar's goodwill and support and then killing him. An even more negative historiographical tradition viewed Brutus and his compatriots as criminal murderers. The divisive views of Brutus in the early Principate had little changed by the reign of Tiberius; the historian Cremutius Cordus was charged with treason for having written a history too friendly to Brutus and Cassius. Around the same time, Valerius Maximus, writing with the support of the imperial regime, believed Brutus' memory suffered from "irreversible curses". Of course, that the Julio-Claudio regime would have had a negative view of Brutus is expected: "admiration of Brutus and Cassius was more sinisterly interpreted