Civil Wars

Octavius, the son of the daughter of Cæsar's sister, had been appointed master of Cæsar's horse for one year, for Cæsar at times made this a yearly office, passing it around among his friends. Being still a young man, he had been sent by Cæsar to Apollonia on the Adriatic to be educated and trained in the art of war, so that he might accompany Cæsar on his expeditions. Troops of horse from Macedonia were sent to him by turns for the purpose of drill, and certain army officers visited him frequently as a relative of Cæsar. As he received all with kindness, an acquaintance and good feeling grew up by means of them between himself and the army. At the end of a six months' sojourn in Apollonia, it was announced to him one evening that Cæsar had been killed in the senate-house by those who were dearest to him, and were then the most powerful ones under him. As the rest of the story was untold he was overcome by fear, not knowing whether the deed had been committed by the Senate as a whole or was confined to the immediate actors; nor whether they had already been punished by the people, or would be,[*](kai\ ei) di/khn h)/dh toi=s plei/osi dedw/koien, h)\ kai\ tou=de ei)=en. All commentators are agreed that the last two words are corrupt; they convey no meaning. Among the numerous conjectures made by way of emendation that of Bekker seems the most reasonable, viz.: h)\ kai\ dw/soien, "or would be punished." This reading has been followed in the translation. The Didot Latin version follows that of Schweighäuser, viz.: utrum poenas jam populo dedissent interfectores, aut saltem eas timerent; i.e. "whether the murderers had already been punished by the people, or at least feared punishment.") or whether the people were pleased with what had been done.

Thereupon his Roman friends advised him to take refuge with the army in Macedonia to insure his personal safety, and that when he should learn that the murder was only a private transaction he should take courage and avenge Cæsar of his enemies; and there were high officers who promised to protect him if he would come. But his mother and his stepfather, Philippus, wrote to him from Rome not to be too confident and not to attempt anything rash, but to bear in mind what Cæsar, after conquering every enemy, had suffered at the hands of his closest friends; that it would be safer under present circumstances to choose a private life and hasten to them at Rome, but with caution. Octavius yielded to them because he did not know what had happened after Cæsar's death. He took leave of the army officers and crossed the Adriatic, not to Brundusium (for as he had made no test of the army at that place he avoided all risk), but to another town not far from it and out of the direct route, named Lupiæ. There he took lodgings and remained for a while.

When more accurate information about the murder and the public grief had reached him, together with copies of Cæsar's will and the decrees of the Senate, his relatives still cautioned him to beware of the enemies of Cæsar, as he was the latter's adopted son and heir. They even advised him to renounce the adoption, together with the inheritance. But he thought that to do so, and not to avenge Cæsar, would be disgraceful. So he went to Brundusium, first sending in advance to see that none of the murderers had laid any trap for him. When the army there advanced to meet him, and received him as Cæsar's son, he took courage, offered sacrifice, and immediately assumed the name of Cæsar; for it is customary among the Romans for the adopted son to take the name of the adoptive father. He not only assumed it, but he changed his own name and his patronymic completely, calling himself Cæsar the son of Cæsar, instead of Octavius the son of Octavius, and he continued to do so ever after. Directly multitudes of men from all sides flocked to him as Cæsar's son, some from friendship to Cæsar, others his freedmen and slaves, and with them other soldiers, who were either engaged in conveying supplies and money to the army in Macedonia, or bringing other money and tribute from other countries to Brundusium.

Encouraged by the numbers who were joining him, and by the glory of Cæsar, and by the good-will of all toward himself, he journeyed to Rome with a notable crowd which, like a torrent, grew larger and larger each day. Although he was safe from any open attacks by reason of the multitude surrounding him, he was all the more on his guard against secret ones, because almost all of those accompanying him were new acquaintances. Some of the towns were not altogether favorable to him, but Cæsar's veterans, who had been distributed in colonies, flocked from their settlements to greet the young man. They bewailed Cæsar, and cursed Antony for not proceeding against the monstrous crime, and said that they would avenge it if anybody would lead them. Octavius praised them, but postponed the matter for the present and sent them away. When he had arrived at Tarracina, about 400 stades from Rome, he received news that Cassius and Brutus had been deprived of Syria and Macedonia by the consuls, and had received the smaller provinces of Cyrenaica and Crete by way of compensation; that certain exiles had returned; that Sextus Pompey had been recalled; that some new members had been added to the Senate in accordance with Cæsar's memoranda, and that many other things were happening.[*](Octavius went to Rome by way of Naples. In a letter to Atticus, written at Puteoli in April, Cicero says: " Octavius arrived at Naples on the 14th Kalends. There Balbus saw him on the morning of the following day and on the same day came to me at Cumæ to tell me that he was going to claim his inheritance; but, as you say, he will have a lively time with Antony." (Ad Att. xiv. 10.) In another letter he writes: "Octavius has arrived at the neighboring villa of Philippus. He is devoted to me." In the next letter he says: " Octavius treats me with the greatest distinction and friendship. Some call him Cæsar. Philippus does not; therefore I do not. I am sure that he cannot be a good citizen, so many of those around him threaten death to our friends and say that these things cannot be borne. What think you when this boy shall come to Rome where our liberators cannot live in safety? They will always be famous, and happy also in the consciousness of what they have done. But, unless I am deceived, we shall be flat on our backs." (Ad Att. xiv. 12.))

When he arrived at the city his mother and Philippus and the others who were interested in him were anxious about the estrangement of the Senate from Cæsar, and the decree that his murderers should not be punished, and the contempt shown him by Antony, who was then all-powerful, and had neither gone to meet Cæsar's son when he was coming nor sent anybody to him. Octavius quieted their fears, saying that he would call on Antony, as the younger man on the older and the private citizen on the consul, and that he would show proper respect for the Senate. As for the decree, he said that it had been passed because nobody had prosecuted the murderers; whenever anybody should have courage to prosecute, the people and the Senate would lend their aid to him as one enforcing the law, the gods would do so for the justice of his cause, and perhaps Antony himself would help. If he (Octavius) should reject the inheritance and the adoption, he would be false to Cæsar and would wrong the people who had a share in the will. As he was finishing his remarks he burst out that he ought not only to incur danger, but even to die, after he had been preferred before all others in this way by Cæsar, if he would show himself worthy of one who had himself braved every danger. Then turning to his mother, he repeated the words of Achilles to Thetis, which were then fresh in his mind: --

"Then quickly let me die since fate denied That I should aid my friend against the foes That slew him."

Iliad, xviii. 98, Bryant's translation.[*](*au)ti/ka teqnai/hn, e)pei\ ou)k a)/r' e)/mellon e(tai/rw| kteinome/nw| e)pamu=nai.)

After saying this he added that these words of Achilles, and especially the deed that followed, had of all things given him immortal renown; and he invoked Cæsar not as a friend, but a father; not as a fellow-soldier, but a commander-in-chief; not as one who had fallen by the law of war, but as the victim of sacrilegious murder in the senate-house.

Thereupon his mother's anxiety was changed to joy, and she embraced him as the only one worthy of Cæsar. She checked his speaking and urged him to prosecute his designs with the favor of fortune. She advised him, however, to use art and patience rather than open boldness. Octavius approved of this policy and promised to adopt it in action, and forthwith sent around to his friends the same evening, asking them to come to the forum early in the morning and bring a crowd with them. There presenting himself to Gaius Antonius, the brother of Antony, who was the city prætor, he said that he accepted the adoption of Cæsar; for it is a Roman custom that adoptions are confirmed by witnesses before the prætors. When the public scribes had taken down his declaration, Octavius went from the forum straightway to Antony. The latter was in the gardens that Cæsar had given to him, that had formerly been Pompey's. As Octavius was kept waiting at the vestibule for some time, he interpreted the fact as a sign of Antony's displeasure. When he was admitted there were greetings and mutual questionings proper to the occasion. When the time came to speak of the business in hand, Octavius said: --

"Father Antony (for the benefits that Cæsar conferred upon you and your gratitude toward him warrant me in giving you that title), for some of the things that you have done since his death I praise you and owe you thanks; for others I blame you. I shall speak freely of what my sorrow prompts me to speak. When Cæsar was killed you were not present, as the murderers detained you at the door; otherwise you would have saved him or incurred the danger of sharing the same fate with him. If the latter would have befallen you, then it is well that you were not present. When certain senators proposed rewards to the murderers as tyrannicides you strongly opposed them. For this I give you hearty thanks, although you knew that they intended to kill you also;[*](The interpretation of this passage is doubtful. Schweighäuser thinks that Octavius means to say that he thanks Antony for opposing the proposition to reward the murderers, although he may have had a selfish interest in doing so.) not, as I think, because you were likely to avenge Cæsar, but, as they themselves say, lest you should be his successor in the tyranny. At the same time they made it clear that they were not tyrant-killers, but murderers,[*]((/*ama d' ou)k h)=san e)kei=noi turannokto/noi ei) mh\ kai\ fonei=s h)=san: literally, "these men were not tyrant-killers unless they were murderers also." I have followed the Latin version of Schweighäuser, which differs from those of his predecessors. He said that the text conveyed no clear meaning to him, and that his version was guesswork.) by taking refuge in the Capitol, either as guilty suppliants in a temple or as enemies in a fortress. How then could they have obtained amnesty and impunity for their crime unless some portion of the Senate and people had been corrupted by them? Yet you, as consul, ought to have seen what would be for the interest of the majority,[*](kai\ se\ to\ tw=n pleo/nwn o)ra=|n e(xrh=n, u(/paton o)/nta. Schweighäuser and his predecessors rendered these words: " You as consul ought to see what would be agreeable to the majority (quid placeret pluribus)." The Didot version more properly renders it quid prodesset pluribus.) and if you had wished to avenge such a monstrous crime, or to reclaim the erring, your office would have enabled you to do either. But you sent hostages from your own family to the murderers at the Capitol for their security. Let us suppose that those who had been corrupted forced you to do this also, yet when Cæsar's will had been read, and you had delivered your righteous funeral oration, and the people, in lively remembrance of Cæsar, had carried firebrands to the houses of the murderers, but spared them for the sake of their neighbors, agreeing to come back armed the next day, why did you not coöperate with them and lead them with fire or arms? Or why did you not bring them to trial, if trial was necessary for men seen in the act of murder -- you, Cæsar's friend; you, the consul; you, Antony?

"The pseudo-Marius was put to death by your order in the plenitude of your authority, but you connived at the escape of the murderers, some of whom have passed on to the provinces which they nefariously hold as gifts at the hands of him whom they slew. These things were no sooner done than you and Dolabella, the consuls, proceeded, very properly, to strip them and possess yourselves of Syria and Macedonia. I should have owed you thanks for this also, had you not immediately voted them Cyrenaica ana Crete; had you not preferred these fugitives for governorships, where they can always defend themselves against me, and had you not tolerated Decimus Brutus in the command of Hither Gaul, although he, like the rest, was one of my father's slayers. It may be said that these were decrees of the Senate. But you put the vote and you presided over the Senate -- you who ought most of all to have opposed them on your own account. To grant amnesty to the murderers was merely to insure their personal safety as a matter of favor, but to vote them provinces and rewards forthwith was to insult Cæsar and annul your own opinion. Grief has compelled me to speak these words, against the rules of decorum perhaps, considering my youth and the respect I owe you. They have been spoken, however, to the firmest friend of Cæsar, to one who was invested by him with the greatest honor and power, and who would have been adopted by him no doubt if he had known that you would accept kinship with the family of Æneas in exchange for that of Hercules; for this created doubt in his mind when he was thinking strongly of designating you as his successor.

"For the future, Antony, I conjure you by the gods who preside over friendship, and by Cæsar himself, to change somewhat the measures that have been adopted, for you can change them if you wish to; if not, that you will hereafter aid and cooperate with me in punishing the murderers, with the help of the people and of those who are still my father's faithful friends. If you still have regard for the conspirators and the Senate, do not be hard on us. So much for that. You know about my private affairs and the expense I must incur for the legacy which my father directed to be given to the people, and the haste involved in it lest I may seem churlish by reason of delay, and lest those who have been assigned to colonies be compelled to remain in the city and waste their time on my account. Of Cæsar's movables, that were brought immediately after the murder from his house to yours as a safer place, I beg you to take keepsakes and anything else by way of ornament and whatever you like to retain from us. But in order that I may pay the legacy to the people, please give me the gold coin that Cæsar had collected for his intended wars. That will suffice for the distribution to 300,000 men now. For the rest of my expenses I may perhaps borrow from you, if I may be so bold, or from the public treasury on your security, if you will give it, and I will offer my own property for sale at once."

While Octavius was speaking in this fashion Antony was astonished at his freedom of speech and his boldness, which seemed much beyond the bounds of propriety and of his years. He was offended by the words because they were wanting in the respect due to him, and still more by the demand for money, and, accordingly, he replied in the severe terms following: "Young man, if Cæsar left you the government, together with the inheritance and his name, it is proper for you to ask and for me to give the reasons for my public acts. But if the Roman people never surrendered the government to anybody to dispose of in succession, not even when they had kings, whom they expelled and swore never to have any more (this was the very charge that the murderers brought against your father, saying that they killed him because he was no longer leading but reigning), then there is no need of my answering you as to my public acts. For the same reason I release you from any indebtedness to me in the way of gratitude for those acts. They were performed not as a favor to you, but to the people, except in one particular, which was of the greatest importance to Cæsar and to yourself. For if, to secure my own safety and to shield myself from enmity, I had allowed honors to be voted to the murderers as tyrannicides, Cæsar would have been declared a tyrant, to whom neither glory, nor any kind of honor, nor confirmation of his acts would have been possible; who could make no valid will, have no son, nor any burial of his body, even as a private citizen. The laws provide that the bodies of tyrants shall be cast out unburied, their memory stigmatized, and their property confiscated.

"Apprehending all of these consequences, I entered the lists for Cæsar, for his immortal honor, and his public funeral, not without danger, not without incurring hatred to myself, contending against hot-headed, blood-thirsty men, who, as you know, had already conspired to kill me; and against the Senate, which was displeased with your father on account of his usurped authority. But I willingly chose to incur these dangers and to suffer anything rather than allow Cæsar to remain unburied and dishonored -- the most valiant man of his time, the most fortunate in every respect, and the one to whom the highest honors were due from me. It is by reason of the dangers I incurred that you enjoy your present distinction as the successor of Cæsar, his family, his name, his dignity, his wealth. It was more becoming in you to testify your gratitude to me for these things than to reproach me for concessions made to soothe the Senate, or in compensation for what I demanded of it, or in pursuance of other needs or reasons -- you a younger man addressing an older one. But enough of that. You hint that I am ambitious of the leadership. I am not ambitious of it, although I do not consider myself unworthy of it. You think that I am distressed because I was not mentioned in Cæsar's will, though you agree with me that the family of the Heraclidæ is enough to content one.

"As to your pecuniary needs and your wishing to borrow from the public funds, I should think you must be joking, unless we might believe that you are still ignorant of the fact that the public treasury was left empty by your father. After he assumed the government the public revenues were brought to him instead of to the treasury, and they will presently be found among Cæsar's assets when we vote an investigation into these matters. This will not be unjust to Cæsar now that he is dead, nor would he say that it was unjust if he were living and were asked for the accounts. And as there will be many private persons to dispute with you concerning single pieces of property, you may assume that this portion will not be uncontested. The money transferred to my house was not so large a sum as you conjecture, nor is any part of it in my custody now. The men in power and authority, except Dolabella and my brothers, divided up the whole of it straightway as the property of a tyrant, but were brought around by me to support the decrees in favor of Cæsar,[*](The truth was that Antony paid his own debts with Cæsar's money. So Cicero tells us in the second Philippic. " Where," he asks, " are the seven hundred million sesterces that were registered at the temple of Ops? His money was indeed a cause for mourning, yet if it was not to be returned to the rightful owners it might relieve us from taxes. But you owed four million sesterces on the Ides of March. How did it happen that you were free from debt on the Kalends of April?" (Phil. ii. 37.)) and you, if you are wise, when you get possession of the remainder, will distribute it among those who are disaffected toward you rather than among the people. The former, if they are in harmony with you,[*](a)\n sumfronw=si: to which Schweighäuser adds soi. All the codices except one read swfronw=si, i.e., " if they are wise." The Teubner edition adheres to the latter reading; the Didot to the former. I have preferred the former because it gives point to Antony's advice. It furnishes a reason why Octavius should use his money in one way rather than in the other. It would enable him to get rid of his expensive allies.) will send the people, who are to be colonized, away to their settlements. The people, however, as you ought to have learned from the Greek studies you have been lately pursuing, are as unstable as the waves of the sea, now advancing, now retreating. In like manner, among us also, the people are forever exalting their favorites, and casting them down again."