Civil Wars

The Senate blamed Antony for his funeral oration over Cæsar, by which, chiefly, the people were incited to disregard the decree of amnesty lately passed, and to scour the city in order to fire the houses of the murderers. But he changed it from bad to good feeling toward himself by one capital stroke of policy. There was a certain pseudo-Marius in Rome named Amatius. He pretended to be a grandson of Marius, and for this reason was popular with the masses. Being, according to this pretence, a relative of Cæsar, he was pained beyond measure by the latter's death, and erected an altar on the site of his funeral pyre. He collected a band of reckless men and made himself a perpetual terror to the murderers. Some of these had fled from the city, and those who had accepted the command of provinces from Cæsar himself had gone away to take charge of the same, Decimus Brutus to Cisalpine Gaul, Trebonius to Asia adjoining Ionia, and Tillius Cimber to Bithynia. Cassius and Marcus Brutus, who were the special favorites of the Senate, had been chosen by Cæsar as governors for the following year, the former of Syria, and the latter of Macedonia. Being still city prætors, they remained there necessarily, and in their official capacity they conciliated the colonists by various decrees, and among others by one enabling them to sell their allotments, the law hitherto forbidding the alienation of the land till the end of twenty years.

It was said that Amatius was only waiting an opportunity to entrap Brutus and Cassius. On the rumor of this plot,[*](th=s e)ne/dras o( )*antw/nios e)pibai/nwn. There is a curious resemblance in these words to our slang phrase " getting on to his game.") Antony, using his consular authority, arrested Amatius and boldly put him to death without a trial. The senators were astonished at this deed as an act of violence and contrary to law, but they enjoyed it exceedingly because they thought that the situation of Brutus and Cassius would never be safe without such boldness. The followers of Amatius, and the plebeians generally, missing Amatius and feeling indignation at the deed, and especially because it had been done by Antony, whom the people had honored, determined that they would not be scorned in that way. With shouts they took possession of the forum, exclaiming against Antony and called on the magistrates, in place of Amatius, to dedicate the altar and to offer the first sacrifices on it to Cæsar. Having been driven out of the forum by soldiers sent by Antony, they became still more indignant, and vociferated more loudly, and some of them showed places where Cæsar's statues had been torn from their pedestals. One man told them that he could show a shop where the statues had been broken up. The others followed, and having witnessed the fact, they set fire to the place. Finally, Antony sent more soldiers and some of those who resisted were killed, others were captured, and of these the slaves were crucified and the freemen thrown over the Tarpeian rock.[*](Cicero in the first Philippic refers to the killing of this impostor as the act of Antony and Dolabella in common, and says that the rest of the work was done by Dolabella alone; but he believes that if Antony had been present he would have coöperated with his colleague. Valerius Maximus says that the pseudo-Marius was a horse doctor (equarius medicus) and that his real name was Herophilus. "He gave out that C. Marius was his grandfather, and so extolled himself that several colonies of veterans, and towns of the first class, and almost all the rural communities, adopted him as their patron. When Cæsar opened his gardens to the people after he had made an end of young Pompey in Spain, Herophilus, who was separated from Cæsar by only the space between two columns, was received by the crowd with almost as much enthusiasm as himself, so that unless the powers of the godlike Cæsar had put a stop to these shameful outbursts, the republic would have received the same hurt as in the case of Equitius (the pseudo-Gracchus)." (Val. Max. ix. 15. 2.))

So this tumult was quieted. The extreme fondness of the plebeians for Antony was turned into extreme hatred. The Senate was delighted, because it believed that Brutus and his associates could not rest secure otherwise.[*](As we have no dates in the text we are left in confusion as to the state of affairs in Rome at any particular time. The assassination took place on the 15th of March. Cassius and Marcus Brutus retired to Lanuvium as soon as it appeared that their lives were in danger in Rome. A letter written to them in the month of April by Decimus Brutus, who had not yet gone to Cisalpine Gaul, is preserved among the letters of Cicero. He says he has had an interview with Hirtius, who tells him that Antony did not consider Rome a safe place for any of them, because the soldiers and the plebeians were so incensed against them. "Do you ask me," he continues, "what I advise? Let us submit to fortune, withdraw from Italy, and retire to Rhodes, or some other part of the world. If better luck comes, we can return to Rome; if no change occurs, we can live in exile; if worst comes to worst, we can try our last resources." (Ad Fam. xi. I.)) Antony also moved that Sextus Pompeius (the son of Pompey the Great, who was still much beloved by all) should be recalled from Spain, where he was still at war with Cæsar's lieutenants, and that he should be paid 50,000,000 of Attic drachmas[*](In the 13th Philippic of Cicero (5) the amount voted to Sextus Pompey in compensation for his father's confiscated estates is put at seven hundred millions of sesterces or $28,700,000 of our money. This was exactly the amount that was in the temple of Ops (the produce of confiscated estates) at the time of Cæsar's death (2d Philippic, 37). Fifty millions of Attic drachmas would have been equal to about $ 10,000,000.) out of the public treasury for his father's confiscated property and be appointed commander of the sea, as his father had been, with charge of all the Roman ships, wherever situated, which were needed for immediate service. The astonished Senate accepted each of these decrees with alacrity and applauded Antony the whole day; for nobody, in their estimation, was more devoted to the republic than the elder Pompey, and hence nobody was more regretted. Cassius and Brutus, who were of Pompey's faction, and the ones most honored by all at that time, thought that they would be entirely safe. They thought that what they had done would be confirmed, and the republic be at last restored, and their party successful. Wherefore Cicero praised Antony continually,[*](In the first Philippic Cicero acknowledges that he was deceived by Antony during the first few days after the assassination. Among other things Antony moved that the dictatorship be forever abolished. He produced a senatus consultum in writing for this purpose, which he wished to have passed; "and when it was read," says Cicero, "we adopted his motion with the greatest enthusiasm and by another senatus consultum returned our thanks to him in the amplest terms." (Phil. I. I.)) and the Senate, perceiving that the plebeians were making plots against him on its account, allowed him a guard for his personal safety, chosen by himself from the veterans who were sojourning in the city.

Antony, either because he had done everything for this very purpose, or seizing the happy chance as very useful to him, enlisted his guard and kept adding to it till it amounted to 6000 men. They were not common soldiers. He thought that he should easily get the latter for his service otherwise. These were composed wholly of centurions, as being fit for command, and of long experience in war, and his own acquaintances through service under Cæsar. He appointed tribunes over them, chosen from their own number and adorned with military decoration, and these he held in honor and made sharers of his public councils. The Senate began to be suspicious of the number of his guards, and of his care in choosing them, and advised him to reduce them to a moderate number so as to avoid invidious remarks. He promised to do so as soon as the disorder among the plebeians should be quieted. It had been decreed that all the things done by Cæsar, and all that he intended to do, should be ratified. The memoranda of Cæsar's intentions were in Antony's possession, and Cæsar's secretary, Faberius, was obedient to him in every way since Cæsar himself, on the point of his departure, had placed all petitions of this kind in Antony's discretion. Antony made many additions in order to secure the favor of many persons. He made gifts to cities, to princes, and to his own guards, and although all were advised that these were Cæsar's memoranda, yet the recipients knew that the favor was due to Antony. In the same way he enrolled many new names in the list of senators and did many other things to please the Senate, in order that it might not bear him ill-will in reference to his guards.

While Antony was busy with these matters, Brutus and Cassius, seeing nobody among either the plebeians or the veterans inclined to be at peace with them, and considering that any other person might lay plots against them like that of Amatius, became distrustful of the fickleness of Antony, who now had an army under his command. Seeing that the republic was not confirmed by deeds, they suspected Antony for that reason also. They reposed most confidence in Decimus Brutus, who had three legions near by. They sent secretly to Trebonius in Asia and to Tillius in Bithynia, asking them to collect money quietly and to prepare an army. They were anxious to enter upon the government of the provinces assigned to them by Cæsar, but as the time for doing so had not yet come, they thought that it would be indecorous for them to leave their service as city prætors unfinished, and that they should incur the suspicion of an undue longing for power over the provinces. They preferred, nevertheless, to spend the remainder of their year as private citizens somewhere, as a matter of necessity, rather than serve as praetors in the city where they were not safe, and were not held in honor corresponding to the benefits they had conferred upon their country. Being in this state of mind, and the Senate holding the same opinion as themselves, the latter gave them charge of the supply of corn for the city from all parts of the world until the time should arrive for them to take command of their provinces. This was done in order that Brutus and Cassius might not at any time seem to have fled. So great was the anxiety and regard for them that the Senate cared for the other murderers chiefly on their account.[*](Brutus and Cassius were at Antium when the Senate appointed them commissioners of the food-supply, and Cicero went there to confer with them. A consultation was held in which the mother, the sister, and the wife of Brutus took part. Cassius at first declined his appointment, saying that he considered it an insult, but he was finally soothed, and both of them accepted. (Ad Att. xv. 11..))

After Brutus and Cassius had left the city, Antony, being in possession of something like monarchical power, cast about for the government of a province and an army for himself. He desired that of Syria most of all, but he was not ignorant of the fact that he was under suspicion and that he would be more so if he should ask for it; for the Senate had secretly encouraged Dolabella, the other consul, to oppose Antony, as the former had always been at variance with the latter. Antony, knowing that this young Dolabella was himself ambitious, persuaded him to solicit the province of Syria and the army enlisted against the Parthians, in place of Cassius, and to ask it, not from the Senate, which had not the power to grant it,[*](ou) ga\r e)ch=n. This means that it is not within the competence of the Senate to assign the province of Syria to Dolabella. Yet in the next section we are informed that it was within the competence of the Senate to assign the province of Macedonia to Antony. The fact is that the competency of the Senate extended to both. Combes-Dounous suggests h)= instead of ou), changing it from negative to affirmative.) but from the people by a law. Dolabella was delighted, and immediately brought forward the law. The Senate accused him of nullifying the decrees of Cæsar. He replied that Cæsar had not assigned the war against the Parthians to anybody, and that Cassius, who had been assigned to the command of Syria, had himself been the first to alter the decrees of Cæsar by authorizing colonists to sell their allotments before the expiration of the legal period of twenty years. He said also that it would be an indignity to himself if he, being Dolabella,[*](That is, a man in his position, a consul whose term was about expiring.) were not chosen for Syria instead of Cassius. The Senate then persuaded one of the tribunes, named Asprenas, to falsify the signs in the sky during the comitia,[*](In which case the proceedings must be suspended.) expecting that Antony, who was both consul and augur, and was supposed to be still at variance with Dolabella, would coöperate with him. But when the voting came on, and Asprenas said that the signs in the sky were unfavorable, as it was not his business to attend to this,

Antony, angry at his lying, ordered that the tribes should go on with the voting on the subject of Dolabella.

Thus Dolabella became governor of Syria and general of the war against the Parthians and of the forces enlisted for that purpose by Cæsar, together with those that had gone in advance to Macedonia. Then it became known for the first time that Antony was coöperating with Dolabella. After this business had been transacted by the people, Antony solicited the province of Macedonia from the Senate, well knowing that after Syria had been given to Dolabella, they would be ashamed to deny Macedonia to himself, especially as it was a province without an army. They gave it to him unwillingly, at the same time wondering why Antony should let Dolabella have the army, but glad nevertheless that the latter had it rather than the former. They themselves took the opportunity to ask of Antony other provinces for Brutus and Cassius. They assigned to them Cyrenaica and Crete; or, as some say, both of these to Cassius and Bithynia to Brutus. Such was the state of affairs at Rome.