Civil Wars

He caused a new law to be passed to repeal the one which declared Dolabella a public enemy, and also to punish the murder of Cæsar. Indictments were found forthwith, the friends of Cæsar bringing accusations against some for actual participation in the crime and against others as having guilty knowledge only. Several were indicted, and among them some who were not in the city when Cæsar was killed. One day was fixed by public proclamation for the trial of all, and judgment was taken against all by default while Octavius was overlooking the court. None of the judges voted for acquittal except one patrician, who then escaped with impunity, but was included with others in the proscription a little later. It appears that about this time Quintus Gallius, a city prætor and brother of Marcus Gallius, who was serving with Antony, asked Octavius for the command of Africa, and, being thus brought into his presence, attempted to take his life. His colleagues stripped him of his prætorship, the people tore his house down, and the Senate condemned him to death. Octavius ordered him to depart to his brother, and it is said that he took ship and was never seen again.[*](Suetonius gives us two different accounts of this affair of Quintus Gallius. One of these says that " Gallius, while paying his respects to Octavius, had a pair of tablets hidden under his garments. Octavius suspected him of concealing a sword, but did not search him lest he should find that it was something else but caused him presently to be dragged away by centurions and soldiers, and subjected to torture like a slave; and as he confessed nothing, ordered him to be put to death after digging out his eyes with his own hands." The other account, which Suetonius says was written by Octavius himself, agrees substantially with that of Appian (Aug. 27).)

These things accomplished, Octavius formed plans for a reconciliation with Antony, for he had learned that Brutus and Cassius had already collected twenty legions of soldiers, and he needed Antony's help against them. He moved out of the city toward the Adriatic coast and proceeded in a leisurely way, waiting to see what the Senate would do. Pedius persuaded the senators, after Octavius had taken his departure, not to make their differences with each other irremediable, but to be reconciled to Lepidus and Antony. They foresaw that such a reconciliation would not be for their advantage or for that of the country, but would be merely an assistance to Octavius against Brutus and Cassius. Nevertheless, they gave their approval and assent to it as a matter of necessity. So the decrees declaring Antony and Lepidus, and the soldiers under them, public enemies, were repealed, and others of a peaceful nature were sent to them. Thereupon Octavius wrote and congratulated them, and he promised to lend assistance to Antony against Decimus Brutus if he needed it. They replied to him at once in a friendly spirit and eulogized him. Antony wrote that he would himself take vengeance on Decimus for Cæsar's account and on Plancus[*](The movements of Plancus are minutely described in his numerous letters to Cicero. Although a Cæsarian, he intended to remain faithful to the republic and would probably have done so had not the supremacy acquired by Octavius at Rome and the reconciliation of the latter with Antony made his military position untenable.) for his own, and that then he would join forces with Octavius.

Such were the letters which they exchanged with each other. While pursuing Decimus, Antony was joined by Asinius Pollio with two legions. Asinius also brought about an arrangement with Plancus, by virtue of which the latter passed over to Antony with three legions, so that Antony now had much the strongest force. Decimus had ten legions, of whom four, the most experienced in war, had suffered severely from famine and were still enfeebled. The other six were new levies, still untrained and unaccustomed to their labors. As he despaired of fighting, he decided to flee to Marcus Brutus in Macedonia. He retreated not by the higher Alps, but toward Ravenna and Aquileia. Since Cæsar had travelled by this route, Decimus proposed another longer and more difficult one -- to cross the Rhine and traverse the wild country of barbarian tribes. Thereupon the new levies, bewildered and fatigued, were the first to desert him and join Octavius. After them the four older legions joined Antony, and the auxiliaries did the same, except a body-guard of Gallic horse. Then Decimus allowed those who wished to do so to return to their own homes, and, after distributing among them the gold he had with him, proceeded toward the Rhine with 300 followers, the only ones who remained. As it was difficult to cross the river with so few, he was now abandoned by all the others except ten. He put on Gallic clothing, and, as he was acquainted with the language, he proceeded on his journey with these, passing himself off as a Gaul. He no longer followed the longer route, but went toward Aquileia, thinking that he should escape notice by reason of the smallness of his force.[*](Appian's geography is much in need of amendment. It is impossible to trace the route taken by Decimus from this description.)

Having been captured by robbers and bound, he asked them who was the chief of this Gallic tribe. He was informed that it was Camillus, a man to whom he had done many favors. So he told them to bring him to Camillus. When the latter saw him led in, he greeted him in a friendly way in public, and scolded those who had bound him, for putting an indignity on so great a man through ignorance; but he sent word to Antony secretly. Antony was some-what touched by this change of fortune, and was not willing to see Decimus, but he ordered Camillus to kill him and send his head to himself.[*](Velleius (ii. 64) gives a somewhat different account of the death of Decimus. "Decimus Brutus," he says, "deserted first by Plancus and afterwards plotted against by him, seeing his army melting away, took to flight and accepted the hospitality of a nobleman named Camelus, in whose house he was found by Antony's emissaries and slain." The Epitome of Livy (cxx.) says that Decimus was put to death by Capenas Sequanus by order of Antony, into whose hands he had fallen.) When he saw the head he ordered his attendants to bury it. Such was the end of Decimus, who had been Cæsar's præfect of horse and had governed Farther Gaul[*](th=s palaia=s *keltikh=s; "older Gaul," which, as Appian himself tells us in iv. 2, infra, means that part of Transalpine Gaul which was held by the Romans before Cæsar's conquests. Yet we know from ii. III, supra, that the whole of Transalpine Gaul was placed in charge of Decimus Brutus by Cæsar just before he embarked for Africa. These facts make it almost certain that the original text was perai/as instead of palaia=s.) under him and had been designated by him for the consulship the coming year and for the governorship of Hither Gaul. He was the next of the murderers after Trebonius to meet punishment, within a year and a half of the assassination. About the same time Minucius Basilus, another of Cæsar's murderers, was killed by his slaves, some of whom he was castrating by way of punishment.