Civil Wars

And now civil discord broke out again worse than [*](B.C. 43) ever and increased enormously. Massacres, banishments, and proscriptions of both senators and the so-called knights took place straightway, including great numbers of both classes, the chief of factions surrendering their enemies to each other, and for this purpose not sparing even their friends and brothers; so much does animosity toward rivals overpower the love of kindred. So in the course of events the Roman empire was partitioned, as though it had been their private property, by these three men: Antony, Lepidus, and the one who was first called Octavius, but afterward Cæsar from his relationship to the other Cæsar and adoption in his will. Shortly after this division they fell to quarrelling among themselves, as was natural, and Octavius, [*](Y.R. 718) who was the superior in understanding and skill, first [*](B.C. 36) deprived Lepidus of Africa, which had fallen to his lot, and [*](Y.R. 723) afterward, as the result of the battle of Actium, took from [*](B.C. 31) Antony all the provinces lying between Syria and the Adriatic gulf. Thereupon, while all the world was filled with astonishment at these wonderful displays of power, he sailed to Egypt and took that country, which was the oldest and at that time the strongest possession of the successors of Alexander, and the only one wanting to complete the Roman empire as it now stands. In consequence of these [*](Y.R. 727) exploits he was at once elevated to the rank of a deity while [*](B.C. 27) still living, and was the first to be thus distinguished by the Romans, and was called by them Augustus. He assumed to himself an authority like Cæsar's over the country and the subject nations, and even greater than Cæsar's, not needing any form of election, or authorization, or even the pretence of it. His government being strengthened by time and mastery, and himself successful in all things and revered by all, he left a lineage and succession that held the supreme power in like manner after him.