Civil Wars

As soon as the triumvirs were by themselves they joined in making a list of those who were to be put to death. They put on the list those whom they suspected because of their power, and also their personal enemies, and they swapped their own relatives and friends with each other for death, both then and later. For they made additions to the catalogue from time to time, some on the ground of enmity, others for a grudge merely, or because the victims tims were friends of their enemies or enemies of their friends. Some were proscribed on account of their wealth, for the triumvirs needed a great deal of money to carry on the war, since the revenue from Asia had been paid to Brutus and Cassius, who were still collecting it, and the kings and satraps were coöperating with them. So the triumvirs were short of money because Europe, and especially Italy, was exhausted by wars and exactions; for which reason they levied very heavy contributions from the plebeians and finally even from women, and contemplated taxes on sales and rents. Some were proscribed because they had handsome villas or city residences. The number of senators who were sentenced to death and confiscation was about 300, and of the so-called knights about 2000. There were brothers and uncles of the triumvirs in the list of the proscribed, and also some of the lieutenants serving under them who had had some difficulty with the leaders, or with their fellow-lieutenants.

As they left the conference to proceed to Rome they postponed the proscription of the greater number of victims, but they decided to send executioners in advance and without warning to kill twelve, or, as some say, seventeen, of the most important ones, among whom was Cicero. Four of these were slain immediately, either at banquets or as they were met on the streets. Search was made for the others in temples and houses. There was a sudden panic which lasted through the night, and a running to and fro with cries and lamentation as in a captured city. When it was known that men had been seized and massacred, although nobody had been previously sentenced by proscription, every man thought that he was the one whom the pursuers were in search of. In despair some were on the point of burning their own houses, and others the public buildings, or of committing some terrible deed in their frenzied state before the blow should fall upon them; and they would have done so had not the consul Pedius hurried around with heralds and encouraged them, telling them to wait till daylight and get more accurate information. When morning came Pedius, contrary to the intention of the triumvirs, published the list of seventeen as deemed the sole authors of the civil strife and the only ones condemned. To the rest he pledged the public faith, being ignorant of the determinations of the triumvirs. Pedius died in consequence of fatigue the following night.

The triumvirs entered the city separately on three successive days, Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus, each with a prætorian cohort and one legion. As they arrived, the city was speedily filled with arms and military standards, disposed in the most advantageous places. A public assembly was forthwith convened in the midst of these armed men, and the tribune Publius Titius proposed a law providing for a new magistracy for settling the present disorders, to consist of three men to hold office for five years, namely, Lepidus, Antony, and Octavius, with the same power as consuls. (Among the Greeks these would have been called harmosts, which is the name the Lacedæmonians gave to those whom they appointed over their subject states.) No time was given for consideration of this measure, nor was a future day appointed for voting on it, but it was passed forthwith. That same night, the proscription of 130 men in addition to the seventeen was proclaimed in various parts of the city, and a little later 150 more, and additions to the lists were constantly made of those who had been previously condemned or killed by mistake, so that they might seem to have perished justly. It was ordered that the heads of all the victims should be brought to the triumvirs in order to adjust the rewards, which to a free person were payable in money and to a slave in both money and freedom. All were required to afford opportunity for searching their houses. Those who received fugitives, or concealed them, or refused to allow search to be made, were liable to the same penalties as the proscribed, and those who informed against concealers were allowed the same rewards [as those who killed the proscribed].

The proscription was in the following words: " Marcus Lepidus, Mark Antony, and Octavius Cæsar, chosen by the people to set in order and regulate the republic, do declare that, had not perfidious scoundrels begged for mercy and when they obtained it become the enemies of their benefactors and conspired against them, neither would Gaius Cæsar have been slain by those whom he saved by his clemency after capturing them in war, whom he admitted to his friendship and upon whom he heaped offices, honors, and gifts; nor should we have been compelled to use severity against those who have insulted us and declared us public enemies. Now, seeing that the malice of those, who have conspired against us and from whom Gaius Cæsar suffered, cannot be overcome by kindness, we prefer to anticipate our enemies rather than suffer at their hands. Let no one who sees what both Cæsar and ourselves have suffered consider our action unjust, cruel, or immoderate. Although Cæsar was clothed with supreme power, although he was pontifex maximus, although he had overthrown and added to our sway the nations most formidable to the Romans, although he was the first man to attempt the untried sea beyond the pillars of Hercules and was the discoverer of a country hitherto unknown to the Romans, this man was slain in a public and sacred place designated as the senate-house, under the eyes of the gods, with twenty-three dastardly wounds, by men whom he had taken prisoners in war and had spared, some of whom he had named as co-heirs of his wealth. After this execrable crime, instead of arresting the guilty wretches, the rest sent them forth as commanders and governors, in which capacity they seized upon the public money with which they are collecting an army against us and are seeking reënforcements from barbarians ever hostile to Roman rule. Cities subject to Rome that would not obey them they have burned, or ravaged, or levelled to the ground; other cities they have forced by terror to bear arms against the country and against us.

"Some of them we have punished already; and by the aid of divine providence you shall see the rest punished presently. Although the chief part of this work has been finished by us or is well in hand, appertaining to Spain and Gaul as well as to Italy, one task still remains, and that is to march against Cæsar's assassins beyond the sea. On the eve of undertaking this foreign war for you, we do not consider it safe, either for you or for us, to leave other enemies behind to take advantage of our absence and watch for opportunities during the war. We think that there should be no delay in such an emergency, but that we ought rather to sweep them out of our pathway, once for all, seeing that [*](Y.R. 712) they began the war against us when they voted us and the armies under us public enemies.

"What vast numbers of citizens have they doomed to destruction with us, disregarding the vengeance of the gods and the reprobation of mankind! We shall not deal harshly with any multitude of men, nor shall we count as enemies all who have opposed us or plotted against us, or those distinguished for their riches merely, their estates, or their high position; nor shall we go to the same lengths as another man who held the supreme power before us, when he, too, was regulating the commonwealth in civil convulsions, and whom you named the Fortunate[*](Sulla; see i. 97 supra.) on account of his success; and yet necessarily three persons will have more enemies than one. We shall take vengeance only on the worst and most guilty. This we shall do for your interest no less than for our own, for while we keep up our conflicts you will all be involved necessarily in great dangers. It is incumbent on us also to do something to quiet the army, which has been insulted, irritated, and decreed a public enemy by our common foes. Although we might arrest on the spot whomsoever we please, we prefer to proscribe rather than seize them unawares; and this, too, on your account, so that it may not be in the power of enraged soldiers to exceed their orders, but that they may be restricted to a certain number designated by name, and spare the others according to order.