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THE plebeianspeople
will be used
in all cases as the equivalent of
This is the only case of armed strife that can be found in the ancient
seditions, and this was caused by an exile. The sword was never carried into
the assembly,
No unseemly deed was wanting until, about fifty years after the death of
Gracchus, Cornelius Sulla, one of these chiefs of factions, doctoring one
evil with another, made himself the absolute master of the state for an
indefinite period. Such officials were formerly called dictators — an
office created in the most perilous emergencies for six months only, and
long since fallen into disuse. Sulla, although nominally elected, became
dictator for life by force and compulsion. Nevertheless he became satiated
After his death the troubles broke out afresh and
And now civil discord broke out again worse than
Thus, out of multifarious civil commotions, the Roman state passed into
solidarity and monarchy. To show how these things came about I have written
and compiled piled this narrative, which is well worth the study of those
who wish to know the measureless ambition of men, their dreadful lust of
power, their unwearying perseverance, and the countless forms of evil. It is
especially necessary for me to describe these things beforehand since they
are the preliminaries of my Egyptian history, and end where that begins, for
The Romans, as they subdued the Italian nations successively in war, seized a part of their lands and built towns there, or established their own colonies in those already existing, and used them in place of garrisons. Of the land acquired by war they assigned the cultivated part forthwith to settlers, or leased or sold it. Since they had no leisure as yet to allot the part which then lay desolated by war (this was generally the greater part), they made proclamation that in the meantime those who were willing to work it might do so for a share of the yearly crops a tenth of the grain and a fifth of the fruit. From those who kept flocks was required a share of the animals, both oxen and small cattle. They did these things in order to multiply the Italian race, which they considered the most laborious of peoples, so that they might have plenty of allies at home. But the very opposite thing happened; for the rich, getting possession of the greater part of the undistributed lands, and being emboldened by the lapse of time to believe that they would never be dispossessed, and adding to their holdings the small farms of their poor neighbors, partly by purchase and partly by force, came to cultivate vast tracts instead of single estates, using for this purpose slaves as laborers and herdsmen, lest free laborers should be drawn from agriculture into the army. The ownership of slaves itself brought them great gain from the multitude of their progeny, who increased because they were exempt from military service. Thus the powerful ones became enormously rich and the race of slaves multiplied throughout the country, while the Italian people dwindled in numbers and strength, being oppressed by penury, taxes, and military service. If they had any respite from these evils they passed their time in idleness, because the land was held by the rich, who employed slaves instead of freemen as cultivators.
For these reasons the people became troubled lest they should no longer have
sufficient allies of the Italian stock, and lest the government itself
should be endangered by such a vast number of slaves. Not perceiving any
remedy, as it was not easy, nor exactly just, to deprive men of so many
possessions they had held so long, including their own trees, buildings, and
fixtures, a law was once
the public land (Of this
land,what was going on.
Mr.
Long in his history (i. 161 and 166) construes this phrase by the word
produce,
meaning that it was the duty of the freemen employed on the
farms to keep account of the crops and make reports to the public
authorities so that the state might receive its due share. This may be
the true meaning, but it should be observed that in the preceding
section where the author speaks of the yearly produce he uses the words
At length Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, an illustrious man, eager for glory,
a most powerful speaker, and for these reasons well known to all, delivered
an eloquent discourse, while serving as tribune, concerning the Italian
race, lamenting that a people so valiant in war, and blood relations to the
Romans, were declining little by little in pauperism and paucity of numbers
without any hope of remedy. He inveighed against the multitude of slaves as
useless in war and never faithful to their masters, and adduced the recent
calamity brought upon the masters by their slaves in
This was extremely disturbing to the rich because, on account of the triumvirs, they could no longer disregard the law as they had done before; nor could they buy the allotments of others, because Gracchus had provided against this by forbidding sales. They collected together in groups, and made lamentation, and accused the poor of appropriating the results of their tillage, their vineyards, and their dwellings. Some said that they had paid the price of the land to their neighbors. Were they to lose the money with the land? Others said that the graves of their ancestors were in the ground, which had been allotted to them in the division of their fathers’ estates. Others said that their wives’ dowries had been expended on the estates, or that the land had been given to their own daughters as dowry. Money-lenders could show loans made on this security. All kinds of wailing and expressions of indignation were heard at once. On the other side were heard the lamentations of the poor—that they had been reduced from competence to extreme penury, and from that to childlessness, because they were unable to rear their offspring. They recounted the military services they had rendered, by which this very land had been acquired, and were angry that they should be robbed of their share of the common property. They reproached the rich for employing slaves, who were always faithless and ill-tempered and for that reason unserviceable in war, instead of freemen, citizens, and soldiers. While these classes were lamenting and indulging in mutual accusations, a great number of others, composed of colonists, or inhabitants of the free towns, or persons otherwise interested in the lands and who were under like apprehensions, flocked in and took sides with their respective factions. Emboldened by numbers and exasperated against each other they attached themselves to turbulent crowds, and waited for the voting on the new law, some trying to prevent its enactment by all means, and others supporting it in every possible way. In addition to personal interest the spirit of rivalry spurred both sides in the preparations they were making against each other for the day of the comitia.
What Gracchus had in his mind in proposing the measure was not wealth, but an
increase of efficient population. Inspired greatly by the usefulness of the
work, and believing that nothing more advantageous or admirable could ever
happen to
Marcus Octavius, another tribune, who had been induced by those in possession
of the lands to interpose his veto (for among the Romans the tribune’s veto
always prevailed), ordered the scribe to keep silence. Thereupon Gracchus
reproached him severely and adjourned the comitia to the following day. Then
he stationed a sufficient guard, as if to force Octavius against his will,
and ordered the scribe with threats to read the proposed law to the
multitude. He began to read, but when Octavius again vetoed he stopped. Then
the tribunes fell to wrangling with each other, and a considerable tumult
arose among the people. The leading citizens besought the tribunes to submit
their controversy to the Senate for decision. Gracchus seized on the
suggestion, believing that the law was acceptable to all well-disposed
persons, and hastened to the senate-house. There, as he had only a few
followers and was upbraided by the rich, he ran back to the forum and said
that he would take the vote at the comitia of the following day, both on the
law and on the magistracy of Octavius, to determine whether a tribune who
was acting contrary to the people’s interest could continue to hold his
office. And so he did, for when Octavius, nothing daunted, again interposed,
Gracchus distributed the pebbles to take a vote on him first. When the first
tribe voted to abrogate the magistracy of Octavius, Gracchus turned to him
and begged him to desist from this veto. As he would not yield, the votes of
the other tribes were taken. There were thirty-five tribes at that time. The
seventeen that voted first angrily sustained this motion. If the eighteenth
should do the same it would make a majority. Again did Gracchus, in the
sight of the people, urgently importune Octavius in his present extreme
danger not to prevent this most pious work, so useful to all
Quintus Mummius was chosen tribune in his place, and the agrarian law was
enacted. The first triumvirs appointed to divide the land were Gracchus
himself, the proposer of the law, his brother of the same name, and his
father-in-law, Appius Claudius, since the people still feared that the law
might fail of execution unless Gracchus should be put in the lead with his
whole family. Gracchus became immensely popular by reason of the law and was
escorted home by the multitude as though he were the founder, not of a
single city or race, but of all the nations of
At the advent of summer the notices for the election of tribunes were given, and as the day for voting approached it was very evident that the rich were earnestly promoting the election of those most inimical to Gracchus. The latter, fearing that evil would befall if he should not be reelected for the following year, summoned his friends from the fields to attend the comitia, but as they were occupied with their harvest he was obliged, when the day fixed for the voting drew near, to have recourse to the plebeians of the city. So he went around asking each one separately to elect him tribune for the ensuing year, on account of the danger he had incurred for them. When the voting took place the first two tribes pronounced for Gracchus. The rich objected that it was not lawful for the same man to hold the office twice in succession. The tribune Rubrius, who had been chosen by lot to preside over the comitia, was in doubt about it, and Mummius, who had been chosen in place of Octavius, urged him to turn over the comitia to his charge. This he did, but the remaining tribunes contended that the presidency should be decided by lot, saying that when Rubrius, who had been chosen in that way, resigned, the casting of lots ought to be done over again for all. As there was much strife over this question, Gracchus, who was getting the worst of it, adjourned the voting to the following day. In utter despair he clothed himself in black, while still in office, and led his son around the forum and introduced him to each man and committed him to their charge, as if he were about to perish at the hands of his enemies.
The poor were moved with deep sorrow, and rightly so, both on their own account (for they believed that they were no longer to live in a free state under equal laws, but were reduced to servitude by the rich), and on account of Gracchus himself, who had incurred such danger and suffering in their behalf. So they all accompanied him with tears to his house in the evening, and bade him be of good courage for the morrow. Gracchus cheered up, assembled his partisans before daybreak, and communicated to them a signal to be displayed in case of a fight. He then took possession of the temple on the Capitoline hill, where the voting was to take place, and occupied the middle of the assembly. As he was obstructed by the other tribunes and by the rich, who would not allow the votes to be taken on this question, he gave the signal. There was a sudden shout from those who saw it, and a resort to violence in consequence. Some of the partisans of Gracchus took position around him like body-guards. Others, having girded themselves, seized the fasces and staves in the hands of the lictors and broke them in pieces. They drove the rich out of the assembly with such disorder and wounds that the tribunes fled from their places in terror, and the priests closed the doors of the temple. Many ran away pell-mell and scattered wild rumors. Some said that Gracchus had deposed all the other tribunes, and this was believed because none of them could be seen. Others said that he had declared himself tribune for the ensuing year without an election.
Under these circumstances the Senate assembled at the temple of Fides.Let those who would save the country follow me.
He wound the
border of his toga about his head either to induce a greater number to go
with him by the singularity of his appearance, or to make for himself, as it
were, a helmet as a sign of battle for those who looked on, or in order to
conceal from the gods what he was about to do. When he arrived at the temple
and advanced against the partisans of Gracchus they yielded to the
reputation of a foremost citizen, for they saw the Senate following with
him. The latter wrested clubs out of the hands of the Gracchans themselves,
or with fragments of broken benches or other apparatus that had been brought
for the use of the assembly, began beating them, and pursued them, and drove
them over the precipice.
So perished on the Capitol, and while still tribune, Gracchus, the son of the
Gracchus who was twice consul, and of Cornelia, daughter of that Scipio who
subjugated
After Gracchus was slain Appius Claudius died, and Fulvius Flaccus and
Papirius Carbo were appointed, in conjunction with the younger Gracchus, to
divide the land. As the persons in possession neglected to hand in lists of
their holdings, a proclamation was issued that informers should furnish
testimony against them. Immediately a great number of embarrassing lawsuits
sprang up. Wherever a new field had been bought adjoining an old one, or
wherever a division of land had been made with allies, the whole district
had to be carefully inquired into on account of the measurement of this one
field, to discover how it had been sold and how divided. Not all owners had
preserved their contracts, or their allotment titles, and even those that
were found were often ambiguous. When the land was resurveyed some owners
were obliged to give up their fruit-trees and farm-buildings in exchange for
naked ground. Others were transferred from cultivated to uncultivated lands,
or to swamps, or pools. In fact, the measuring had not been carefully done
when the land was first taken from the enemy. As the original proclamation
authorized anybody to work the undistributed land who wished to do so, many
had been prompted to cultivate the parts immediately adjoining their own,
till the line of demarkation
The Italian allies who complained of these disturbances,
When the people heard these charges they were in a state of alarm until
Scipio, after placing near his couch at home one evening a tablet on which
he intended to write during the night the speech he intended to deliver
before the people, was found dead in his bed without a wound. Whether this
was done by Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi (aided by her daughter,
Sempronia, who was married to Scipio, and was unloved and unloving because
she was deformed and childless), lest the law of Gracchus should be
abolished, or whether, as some think, he committed suicide because he saw
plainly that he could not accomplish what he had promised, is not known.
Some say that slaves, who were subjected to torture, testified that unknown
persons were introduced through the rear of the house by night who
suffocated him, and that those who knew about it hesitated to tell because
the people were angry with him still and rejoiced at his death. So died
Scipio, and although he had been of immense service to the Roman power he
was not honored with a public funeral; so much does the anger of the present
moment outweigh gratitude for the past. And this event, sufficiently
important in itself, took place as an incident of the sedition of
Gracchus.
Those who were in possession of the lands even after these events postponed
the division on various pretexts for a very long time. Some thought that the
Italian allies, who made the greatest resistance to it, ought to be admitted
to Roman citizenship so that, out of gratitude for the greater favor, they
should no longer quarrel about the
Thus Gaius Gracchus became tribune a second time. Having bought the
plebeians, as it were, he began, by another like political
manœuvre, to court the equestrian order, who hold the middle place
between the Senate and the plebeians. He transferred the courts of justice,
which had become discredited by reason of bribery, from the senators to the
knights, reproaching the former especially with the recent examples of
Aurelius Cotta, Salinator, and, third in the list, Manius Aquilius (the one
who subdued
Gracchus made long roads throughout Nobody who does not possess
the right of suffrage shall stay in the city or approach within forty stades
of it while voting is going on concerning these laws.
The Senate also
persuaded Livius Drusus, another tribune, to interpose his veto against the
laws proposed by Gracchus, but not to tell the people his reasons for doing
so; for a tribune was not required to give reasons for his veto. In order to
conciliate the people they gave Drusus the privilege of founding twelve
colonies, and the plebeians were so much pleased with this that they began
to scoff at the laws proposed by Gracchus.
Having lost the favor of the rabble, Gracchus sailed for
Now the people were assembled, and Fulvius had begun speaking about the business in hand, when Gracchus arrived at the Capitol attended by a body-guard of his partisans. Disturbed by what he knew about the extraordinary plans on foot he turned aside from the meeting-place of the assembly, passed into the portico, and walked about waiting to see what would happen. Just then a plebeian named Antyllus, who was sacrificing in the portico, saw him in this disturbed state, seized him by the hand, either because he had heard something or suspected something, or was moved to speak to him for some other reason, and asked him to spare his country. Gracchus, still more disturbed, and startled like one detected in a crime, gave the man a piercing look. Then one of his party, although no signal had been displayed or order given, inferred merely from the very sharp glance that Gracchus cast upon Antyllus that the time for action had come, and thought that he should do a favor to Gracchus by striking the first blow. So he drew his dagger and slew Antyllus. A cry was raised, the dead body was seen in the midst of the crowd, and all who were outside fled from the temple in fear of a like fate. Gracchus went into the assembly desiring to exculpate himself of the deed. Nobody would so much as listen to him. All turned away from him as from one stained with blood. Gracchus and Flaccus were nonplussed and, having lost the chance of accomplishing what they wished, they hastened home, and their partisans with them. The rest of the crowd occupied the forum throughout the night as though some calamity were impending. Opimius, one of the consuls, who was staying in the city, ordered an armed force to be stationed at the Capitol at daybreak, and sent heralds to convoke the Senate. He took his own station in the temple of Castor and Pollux in the centre of the city and there awaited events.
When these arrangements had been made the Senate summoned Gracchus and
Flaccus from their homes to the senate-house to defend themselves. But they
ran out armed toward the wooden bridge
in Appian’s history. The
Romans called it Sublicius pons
because it rested on wooden
piles.
So the sedition of the younger Gracchus came to an end. Not long afterward a
law was enacted to permit the holders to sell the land about which they had
quarrelled; for even this had been forbidden by the law of the elder
Gracchus. Presently the rich bought the allotments of the poor, or found
pretexts for seizing them by force. So the condition of the poor became even
worse than it was before, until Spurius Borius, a tribune of the people,
brought in a law providing that the work of distributing the public domain
should no longer be continued, but that the land should belong to those in
possession of it, who should pay rent for it to the people, and that the
money so received should be distributed. This distribution was a kind of
solace to the poor, but it did not serve to increase the population. By
these devices the law of Gracchus (most excellent and useful if it could
have been carried out) was once for all frustrated, and a little later the
rent itself was abolished at the instance of another tribune. So the
piebeians lost everything. Whence resulted a still further decline in the
numbers of both citizens and soldiers, and in the revenue from the land and
the distribution thereof; and about fifteen years after the enactment of the
law of Gracchus, the laws themselves fell into abeyance by reason of the
slackness of the judicial proceedings.Desperandum de totius
enuntiati inde ab
says Mendelssohn. I have followed the
rendering of M. Combes-Dounous.
About this time the consul Scipio [Nasica] demolished the theatre begun by
Lucius Cassius, and now nearly finished, because he considered this also the
source of new seditions or because he thought it not altogether desirable
that the Romans should become accustomed to Grecian pleasures. The censor,
Quintus Caecelius Metellus, attempted to degrade Glaucia, a
senator, and Apuleius Saturninus, who had already been a tribune, on account
of their disgraceful mode of life, but was not able to do so because his
colleague
Metellus was banished by them at the instigation of Gaius Marius, who was
then in his sixth consulship, and was the secret enemy of Metellus. Thus
they all helped each other. Saturninus brought forward a law to divide the
land which the Cimbri (a Celtic tribe lately driven out
Sedition broke out in the comitia. Those who attempted to prevent the passage of the laws proposed by the tribunes were assaulted by Saturninus and driven away from the rostra. The city folks exclaimed that thunder was heard in the assembly, in which case it is not permitted by Roman custom to finish the business that day. As the adherents of Saturninus persisted nevertheless, the city people girded themselves, seized whatever clubs they could lay their hands on, and dispersed the rustics. The latter were rallied by Saturninus; they attacked the city folks with clubs, overcame them, and passed the law. When this was done Marius, in his capacity as consul, forthwith proposed to the Senate that they consider concerning taking the oath. Knowing that Metellus was a man of fixed opinion and firm in whatever he might believe or commit himself to, he gave his own opinion publicly, but deceitfully, saying that he would never willingly take this oath himself. When Metellus had agreed with him in this, and the others had praised them both, Marius adjourned the Senate. On the fifth day thereafter (the last day prescribed in the law for taking the oath) he called them together in haste about the tenth hour, saying that he was afraid of the people because they were so zealous for the law. He saw a way, however, to avoid it, and he proposed the following trick—to swear that they would obey the law as far as it was a law, and thus at once disperse the country people by stratagem. Afterward it could be easily shown that this thing, which had been enacted by violence and in spite of thunder, contrary to the custom of their ancestors, was not a law.
After speaking thus he did not wait for the result, but while all were in silent amazement at the plot, and confused because there was no time to be lost and no opportunity for thinking, he rose and went to the temple of Saturn, where the quaestors were accustomed to administer oaths, and took the oath first with his friends. The rest followed his example, as each one feared for his own safety. Metellus alone refused to swear, but stood fearlessly by his first determination. Saturninus proceeded against him at once on the next day. He sent an officer for him and dragged him out of the senate-house. As the other tribunes defended him Glaucia and Saturninus hastened to the country people and told them that they would never get the land, and that the law would not be executed, unless Metellus were banished. They proposed a decree of banishment against him and directed the consuls to interdict fire and water and shelter to him, and appointed a day for the ratification of this decree. Great was the indignation of the city people, who constantly escorted Metellus, carrying daggers. He thanked them and praised them for their good intentions, but said that he could not allow any danger to befall the country on his account. After saying this he withdrew from the city. Saturninus got the decree ratified, and Marius made proclamation that it was a part of the law.
In this way was Metellus, a most admirable man, sent into banishment. Thereupon Saturninus was made tribune a third time and he had for a colleague one who was thought to be a fugitive slave, but who claimed to be a son of the elder Gracchus. The multitude supported him in the election because they regretted Gracchus. When the election for consuls came on Marcus Antonius was chosen as one of them by common consent. The aforesaid Glaucia and Memmius contended for the other place. Memmius was the more illustrious man by far, and Glaucia and Saturninus were fearful of the result. So they sent a gang of ruffians to attack him with clubs while the election was going on. They fell upon him in the midst of the comitia and beat him to death in the sight of all. The assembly was broken up in terror. Neither laws nor courts nor sense of shame remained. The people ran together in anger the following day intending to kill Saturninus, but he had collected another mob from the country and, with Glaucia and Gaius Saufeius, the quaestor, seized the Capitol. The Senate voted them public enemies. Marius was vexed; nevertheless he armed some of his forces reluctantly, and, while he was delaying, some other persons cut off the water-supply from the Capitoline temple. Saufeius was near perishing with thirst and proposed to set the temple on fire, but Glaucia and Saturninus, who hoped that Marius would assist them, surrendered first, and after them Saufeius. As everybody demanded that they should be put to death, Marius shut them up in the senate-house as though he intended to deal with them in a more legal manner. The crowd considered this a mere pretext. They tore the tiles off the roof and stoned them to death, including a quaestor, a tribune, and a praetor, who were still wearing their insignia of office.
Very many others were swept out of existence in this sedition. Among them was
that other tribune who was supposed to be the son of Gracchus, and who
perished on that first day of his magistracy. Freedom, democracy, laws,
reputation, official position, were no longer of any use to anybody, since
even the tribunician office, which had been devised for the restraint of
wrong-doers and the protection of the plebeians, and was sacred and
inviolable, now committed such outrages and suffered such indignities. When
the party of Saturninus was destroyed the Senate and people clamored for the
recall of Metellus, but Publius Furius, a tribune who was not the son of a
free citizen but of a freedman, boldly resisted them. Not even Metellus, the
son of Metellus, who besought him in the presence of the people with tears
in his eyes, and threw himself at his feet, could move him. From this
spectacle the son ever afterward bore the name of Metellus Pius. The
following year Furius was called to account for his obstinacy by the new
tribune, Gaius Canuleius. The people did not wait
While they were thus occupied the so-called Social War, in which many Italian
peoples were engaged, broke out. It began unexpectedly, grew to great
proportions rapidly, and extinguished the Roman seditions for a long time by
a new terror. When it was ended it gave rise to new seditions under more
powerful leaders, who did not work by introducing new laws, or by playing
the demagogue, but by employing whole armies against each other. I have
treated it in this history because it had its origin in a Roman sedition and
resulted in another one much worse.
After them the tribune Livius Drusus, a man of most
Thus it came to pass that both the Senate and the knights, although opposed
to each other, were united in hating Drusus. Only the plebeians were
gratified with the colonies. The Italians, in whose interest chiefly Drusus
was devising these plans, were apprehensive about the law providing for the
colonies, because they thought that the Roman public domain (which was still
undivided and which they were cultivating, some by force and others
clandestinely) would be taken away from them, and that in many cases they
might even be disturbed in their private holdings. The Etruscans and the
Umbrians had the same fears as the Italians,
applied only to
that part of the peninsula south of Etruria and
Thus was Drusus also slain while serving as tribune. The knights, in order to
make his policy a ground of accusation against their enemies, persuaded the
tribune Quintus Varius to bring forward a law to prosecute those who should,
either openly or secretly, aid the Italians to acquire citizenship. They
hoped to bring all the leaders under malicious indictment, and themselves to
sit in judgment on them, and that when their enemies were out of the way
they should be more powerful than ever in the government of
As this wickedness prevailed more and more against the best citizens, the
people were grieved because they were deprived all at once of so many men
who had rendered such great services. When the Italians learned of the
killing of Drusus and of the reason alleged for banishing the others, they
considered it no longer bearable that those who were laboring for their
political advancement should suffer such outrages, and as they saw no other
means of acquiring citizenship they decided to revolt from the Romans
altogether, and to make war against them with all their might. They sent
envoys to each other secretly, formed a league, and exchanged hostages as a
pledge of good faith. The Romans were in ignorance of these facts for a long
time, being preoccupied by the judicial proceedings and the seditions in the
city. When they heard what was going on they sent men around to the towns,
choosing those who were best acquainted with each, to collect information
quietly. One of these saw a young man who was being taken as a hostage from
the town of
When the revolt broke out all the neighboring peoples showed their
preparedness at the same time, the Marsi, the Peligni, the Vestini, the
Marrucini; and after them the Picentines, the Frentani, the Hirpini, the
Pompeiians, the Venusini, the Apulians, the Lucanians, and
The Romans were led by the consuls Sextus Julius Caesar and Publius Rutilius Lupus, for in this great civil war both consuls marched forth at once, leaving the gates and walls in charge of others, as was customary in cases of danger arising at home or very near by. When the war was found to be complicated and many-sided, they sent their most renowned men as lieutenant-generals to aid the consuls: to Rutilius, Gnaeus Pompeius, the father of Pompey the Great, Quintus Caepio, Gaius Perpenna, Gaius Marius, and Valerius Messala; to Sextus Caesar, Publius Lentulus, a brother of Caesar himself, Titus Didius, Licinius Crassus, Cornelius Sulla, and Marcellus. All these served under the consuls and the country was divided among them. The consuls visited all parts of the field of operations, and the Romans sent them additional forces continually, knowing that it was a great conflict. The Italians had generals for their united forces besides those of the separate towns. The chief commanders were Titus Lafrenius, Gaius Pontilius, Marius Egnatius, Quintus Pompaedius, Gaius Papius, Marcus Lamponius, Gaius Judacilius, Herius Asinius, and Vettius Cato. They divided their army in equal parts, took their positions against the Roman generals, performed many notable exploits, and suffered many disasters. The most memorable events of each class I shall here summarize.
Vettius Cato defeated Sextus Julius, killed 2000 of his men, and marched against aesernia, which adhered to Rome. L. Scipio and L. Acilius, who were in command here, escaped in the disguise of slaves. The enemy, after a considerable time, reduced it by famine. Marius Egnatius captured Venafrum by treachery and slew two Roman cohorts there. Publius Presenteius defeated Perpenna, who had 10,000 men under his command, killed 4000 and captured the arms of the greater part of the others, for which reason the consul Rutilius deprived Perpenna of his command and gave his division of the army to Gaius Marius. Marcus Lamponius destroyed some 800 of the forces under Licinius Crassus and drove the remainder into the town of Grumentum.
Gaius Papius captured Nola by treachery and offered to the 2000 Roman soldiers in it the privilege of serving under him if they would change their allegiance. They did so, but as their officers refused the proposal the latter were taken prisoners and starved to death by Papius. In conjunction with Stabias he captured Minturnae, and Salernum, which was a Roman colony. The prisoners and the slaves from these places were taken into the military service. Then he plundered the entire country around Nuceria. The towns in the vicinity were struck with terror and submitted to him, and when he demanded military assistance they furnished him about 10,000 foot and 1000 horse. With these Papius laid siege to Acerrae. Sextus Caesar, with 10,000 Gallic foot and certain Numidian and Mauretanian horse and foot, advanced toward Acerrae. Papius took a son of Jugurtha, formerly king of Numidia, named Oxynta, who was under charge of a Roman guard at Venusia, led him out of that place, clothed him in royal purple, and showed him frequently to the Numidians who were in Caesar’s army. Many of them deserted, as if to their own king, so that Caesar was obliged to send the rest back to Africa, as they were not trustworthy. Papius attacked him rashly, and had already made a breach in his fortified camp when Caesar debouched with his horse through the other gates and slew about 6000 of his men, after which Caesar withdrew from Acerrae. Canusia and Venusia and many other towns in Apulia sided with Judacilius. Some that did not submit he besieged, and he put to death the principal Roman citizens in them, but the common people and the slaves he enrolled in his army.
The consul Rutilius and Gaius Marius built bridges over the river Liris at no great distance from each other. Vettius Cato pitched his camp opposite them, but nearer to the bridge of Marius, and placed an ambush by night in some ravines around the bridge of Rutilius. Early in the morning, after he had allowed Rutilius to cross the bridge, he started up from ambush and killed a large number of the enemy on the dry land and drove many into the river. In this fight Rutilius himself was wounded in the head by a missile and died soon afterward. Marius was on the other bridge and when he guessed, from the bodies floating down stream, what had happened, he pushed away those in his front, crossed the river, and captured the camp of Cato, which was guarded by only a small force, so that Cato was obliged to spend the night where he had won his victory, and to retreat in the morning for want of provisions. The body of Rutilius and those of many other patricians were brought to Rome for burial. The corpses of the consul and his numerous comrades made a piteous spectacle and the mourning lasted many days. The Senate decreed from this time on that those who were killed in war should be buried where they fell, lest others should be deterred by the spectacle from entering the army. When the enemy heard of this they made a similar decree for themselves.
There was no successor to Rutilius in the consulship for the remainder of the year, as Sextus Caesar did not have leisure to go to the city and hold the comitia. The Senate appointed G. Marius and Q. Caepio to command the forces of Rutilius in the field. The opposing general, Q. Pompaedius, fled as a pretended deserter to this Caepio. He brought with him and gave as a pledge two slave babies, clad with the purple-bordered garments of free-born children, pretending that they were his own sons. As further confirmation of his good faith he brought masses of lead plated with gold and silver. He urged Caepio to follow him in all haste with his army and capture the hostile army while destitute of a leader. Caepio was deceived and followed him. When they had arrived at a place where an ambush had been laid, Pompaedius ran up to the top of a hill as though he were searching for the enemy, and gave his own men a signal. The latter sprang out of their concealment and cut Caepio and most of his force in pieces. The Senate joined the rest of Caepio’s army to that of Marius.
While Sextus Caesar was passing through a rocky defile with 30,000 foot and 5000 horse Marius Egnatius suddenly fell upon him and defeated him in it. He retreated on a litter, as he was sick, to a certain stream where there was only one bridge, and there he lost the greater part of his force and the arms of the survivors. He escaped to Teanum with difficulty and there he armed the remainder of his men as best he could. Reënforcements were sent to him speedily and he marched to the relief of Acerrae, which was still besieged by Papius, but when their camps were pitched opposite each other neither of them dared to attack the other.
Cornelius Sulla and Gaius Marius defeated the Marsians, who had attacked
them. They pursued the enemy vigorously as far as the walls enclosing their
vineyards. The Marsians scaled these walls with loss, but Marius and Sulla
did not deem it wise to follow them farther. Cornelius Sulla was encamped on
the other side of these enclosures and when he knew what had happened he
came out to meet the Marsians, as they tried to escape, and killed a great
number. More than 6000 Marsians were slain that day, and the arms of a still
greater number were captured by the Romans. The Marsians were rendered as
furious as wild beasts by this disaster. They armed their forces again and
prepared to march against the enemy, but did not dare to take the offensive
or to begin a battle. They are a very warlike race, and it is said that no
triumph was ever awarded for a victory over them except for this single
disaster. There had been up to this time a saying, No triumph over Marsians
or without Marsians.
Judacilius and T. Lafrenius and P. Ventidius united their forces near Mount Falerinus and defeated Gnaeus Pompeius and pursued him to the city of Firmum. Then they went different ways. Lafrenius besieged Pompeius, who had shut himself up in Firmum. The latter armed his remaining forces, but did not come to an engagement. Having learned that another army was approaching, he sent Sulpicius around to take Lafrenius in the rear while he made a sally in front. Battle was joined and both sides were having a doubtful fight when Sulpicius set fire to the enemy’s camp. When the latter saw this they fled to Asculum in disorder and without a general, for Lafrenius had fallen in the battle. Pompeius then advanced and laid siege to Asculum.
Asculum was the native town of Judacilius, and as he feared for its safety he hastened to its relief with eight cohorts. He sent word beforehand to the inhabitants that when they should see him advancing at a distance they should make a sally against the besiegers, so that the enemy should be attacked on both sides at once. The inhabitants were afraid to do so; nevertheless Judacilius forced his way into the city through the midst of the enemy with what followers he could get, and upbraided the citizens for their cowardice and disobedience. As he despaired of saving the city he first put to death all of his enemies, who had been at variance with him before and who, out of jealousy, had prevented the people from obeying his recent orders. Then he erected a funeral pile in the temple and placed a couch upon it, and had a feast with his friends, and while the drinking-bout was at its height he swallowed poison, threw himself on the pile, and ordered his friends to set fire to it. Thus perished Judacilius, a man who considered it glorious to die for his country. Sextus Caesar was invested with the consular power by the Senate after his term of office had expired. He attacked 20,000 of the enemy at some place while they were changing camping-places, killed about 8000 of them, and captured the arms of a much larger number. He died of a disease while pushing the long siege of Asculum; the Senate appointed Gaius Baebius his successor.
While these events were transpiring on the Adriatic side of Italy, the
inhabitants of Etruria and Umbria and other neighboring peoples on the other
side of Rome heard of them and all were excited to revolt. The Senate,
fearing lest they should be surrounded by enemies for want of guards,
garrisoned the sea-coast from Cumae to the city with freedmen, who
were then for the first time enrolled in the army on account of the scarcity
of soldiers. The Senate also voted that those Italians who had adhered to
their alliance should be admitted to citizenship, which was the one thing
they all desired most. They sent this decree around among the Etruscans, who
gladly accepted the citizenship. By this favor the Senate made the faithful
more faithful, confirmed the wavering, and mollified their enemies by the
hope of similar treatment. The Romans did not enroll the new citizens in the
thirty-five existing tribes, lest they should outvote the old ones in the
elections, but incorporated them in ten new tribes, which voted last. So it
often happened that their vote was useless, since a majority was obtained
from the thirty-five tribes that voted first. This fact was either not
noticed by the Italians at the time or they were satisfied with what they
had gained, but it was observed later and became the source of a new
conflict.
The insurgents along the Adriatic coast, before they learned of the change of
sentiment among the Etruscans, sent 15,000 men to their assistance by a long
and difficult road. Gnaeus Pompeius, who was now consul, fell upon
them and killed 5000 of them. The rest made their way homeward through a
trackless region, in a severe winter, living on acorns; and half of them
perished. The same winter Porcius Cato, the colleague of Pompeius, was
killed while fighting with the Marsians. While Sulla was encamped near the
Pompeiian mountains Lucius Cluentius pitched his camp in a contemptuous
manner at a distance of only three stades from him, Sulla did not tolerate
this insolence, but attacked Cluentius without waiting for his
Then Sulla moved against the Hirpini and attacked the town of
Aeculanum. The inhabitants, who expected aid from the Lucanians
that very day, asked Sulla to give them time for consideration. He
understood the trick and gave them one hour, and meanwhile piled fagots
around their walls, which were made of wood, and at the expiration of the
hour set them on fire. They were terrified and surrendered the town. Sulla
plundered it because it had not been delivered up voluntarily but by
necessity. He spared the other towns that gave themselves up, and in this
way the entire population of the Hirpini was brought under subjection. Then
Sulla moved against the Samnites, not where Mutilus, the Samnite general,
guarded the roads, but by another circuitous route where his coming was not
expected. He fell upon them suddenly, killed many, and scattered the rest in
disorderly flight. Mutilus was wounded and took refuge with a few followers
in Aesernia. Sulla destroyed his camp and moved against Bovianum,
where the common council of the rebels was held. The city had three towers.
While the inhabitants were looking at Sulla from one of these he ordered a
detachment to capture whichever of the others they could, and to make a
signal by means of smoke. When the smoke was seen he made an attack in front
and, after a severe fight of three hours, took
Gnaeus Pompeius brought the Marsians, the Marrucini, and the Vestini
under subjection. Gaius Cosconius, another Roman praetor, advanced
against and burned Salapia. He received the surrender of Cannae and
laid siege to Canusium. He had a severe fight with the Samnites, who came to
its relief. After great slaughter on both sides Cosconius was beaten and
retreated to Cannae. A river separated the two armies, and
Trebatius sent word to Cosconius either to come over to his side and fight
him, or to withdraw and let him cross. Cosconius withdrew, and while
Trebatius was crossing attacked him and got the better of him, and, while he
was flying toward the stream, killed 15,000 of his men. The remainder took
refuge with Trebatius in Canusium. Cosconius overran the territory of
Larinum, Venusia, and Asculum, and invaded that of the Pœdiculi,
and within two days received their surrender.
Caecilius Metellus, his successor in the praetorship,
About the same time dissensions arose in the city between debtors and
creditors, since the latter exacted the money due them with interest,
although an old law distinctly forbade lending on interest and imposed a
penalty upon any one doing so. It seems that the ancient Romans, like the
Greeks, abhorred the taking of interest on loans as something knavish, and
hard on the poor, and leading to contention and enmity; and by the same kind
of reasoning the Persians considered lending itself as having a tendency
Hitherto the murders and seditions had been merely intestine squabbles.
Afterward the chiefs of factions assailed each other with great armies,
according to the usage of war, and the country lay as a prize between them.
The beginning and origin of these contentions came about directly after the
Social War, in this wise. When Mithridates, king of Pontus and of other
nations, invaded Bithynia and Phrygia and that part of Asia adjacent to
those countries, as I have related in the preceding book, the consul Sulla
was chosen by lot to the command of Asia and the Mithridatic war, but was
still in Rome. Marius thought that this would be an easy and lucrative war
and he desired the command of it. So he prevailed upon the tribune, Publius
Sulpicius, by many promises, to help him obtain it. He also led the new
Italian citizens, who had very little power in the elections, to hope that
they should be distributed among all the tribes—not putting forward
anything concerning his own advantage, but with the expectation of employing
them as loyal servants in his every
Sulpicius would not wait for the vacation’s end. He ordered his faction to come to the forum with concealed daggers and to do whatever the exigency might require, and not to spare the consuls themselves upon occasion. When everything was in readiness he denounced the vacation as illegal and ordered the consuls, Cornelius Sulla and Quintus Pompeius, to put an end to it at once, in order to proceed to the enactment of laws. A tumult arose, and those who had been armed drew their daggers and threatened to kill the consuls, who were making opposition. Finally Pompeius escaped secretly and Sulla withdrew on the pretext of taking advice. In the meantime the son of Pompeius, who was the son-in-law of Sulla, and who was speaking his mind rather freely, was killed by the Sulpicians. Presently Sulla returned and annulled the vacation, but hurried away to Capua, where his army was stationed, in order to cross over to Asia to take command of the war against Mithridates, for he knew nothing as yet of the designs against himself. As the vacation was annulled and Sulla had left the city, Sulpicius enacted his law, and Marius, for whose sake it was done, was forthwith chosen commander of the war against Mithridates in place of Sulla.
When Sulla heard of this he resolved to decide the question by war. He called
the army together in a conference. They were eager for the war against
Mithridates because it promised much plunder, and they feared that Marius
would enlist other soldiers instead of themselves. Sulla spoke of the
indignity put upon him by Sulpicius and Marius, and while he did not openly
allude to anything else (for he did not dare as yet to mention this kind of
a war), he urged them to be ready to obey his orders. They understood what
he meant, and as they feared lest they should miss the campaign they spoke
boldly what Sulla had in his mind, and told him to be of good courage, and
to lead them to Rome. Sulla was overjoyed and led six legions thither
forthwith, but all of his superior officers, except one quaestor,
left him and hastened to the city, because they would not submit to the idea
of leading an army against their country. Envoys met him on the road and
asked him why he was marching with armed forces against his country.
he replied. He gave the same
answer to a second and a third embassy that came to him, one after another,
but he announced to them finally that the Senate and Marius and Sulpicius
might meet him in the Campus Martius if they liked, and that he would do
whatever might be agreed upon after consultation. As he was approaching, his
colleague, Pompeius, came to meet him and praised him for what he had done,
for Pompeius was delighted, and coöperated with him in every way.
As Marius and Sulpicius needed some short interval for preparation, they
sent other messengers, in the guise of envoys from the Senate, directing him
not to move his camp nearer than forty stades from the city until they could
consider of the business in hand. Sulla and Pompeius understood their game
perfectly and promised to comply, but as soon as the envoys were returning
they followed them. To deliver her from her tyrants,
Sulla took possession of the Cœlian gate and of the adjoining wall with one legion of soldiers, and Pompeius occupied the Colline gate with another. A third advanced to the Sublician bridge, and a fourth remained on guard in front of the walls. With the remainder Sulla entered the city, being in appearance and in fact an enemy. The inhabitants round about tried to fight him off by hurling missiles from the roofs until he threatened to burn the houses; then they desisted. Marius and Sulpicius went, with some forces they had hastily armed, to meet the invaders near the Aesquiline forum, and here a battle took place between the contending parties, the first that was regularly fought in Rome with trumpet and signal under the rules of war, and not at all in the similitude of a faction fight. To such extremity of evil had the recklessness of party strife progressed among them. Sulla’s forces were beginning to waver when Sulla seized a standard and exposed himself to danger in the foremost ranks. Out of regard for their general and fear of ignominy if they should abandon their standard, they rallied at once. Sulla ordered up fresh troops from his camp and sent others around by the socalled Suburran road to take the enemy in the rear. The Marians fought feebly against these new-comers, and as they feared lest they should be surrounded they called to their aid the other citizens who were still fighting from the houses, and proclaimed freedom to slaves who would share their labors. As nobody came forward they fell into utter despair and fled at once out of the city, together with those of the nobility who had coöperated with them.
Sulla advanced to the so-called Via Sacra and there, in sight of everybody, punished certain soldiers who had plundered persons on the road. He stationed guards at intervals throughout the city, he and Pompeius keeping watch by night. Each kept moving about his own command to see that no calamity was brought about either by the frightened people or by the victorious troops: They summoned the people to an assembly at daybreak and lamented the condition of the republic, which had been so long given over to demagogues, and said that they had done what they had done as a matter of necessity. They proposed that no question should ever again be brought before the people which had not been previously considered by the Senate, an ancient practice which had been abandoned long ago. Also that the voting should not be by tribes, but by centuries, as King Servius Tullius had ordained. They thought that by these two measures—namely, that no law should be brought before the people unless it had been previously before the Senate, and that the voting should be controlled by the well-to-do and sober-minded rather than by the pauper and reckless classes—there would no longer be any starting-point for civil discord. They proposed many other measures for curtailing the power of the tribunes, which had become extremely tyrannical. They enrolled 300 of the best citizens at once in the list of senators, who had been reduced at that time to a very small number and had fallen into contempt for that reason. They annulled all the acts performed by Sulpicius after the vacation had been proclaimed by the consuls, as being illegal.
Thus the seditions proceeded from strife and contention to murder, and from
murder to open war, and now the first army of her own citizens had invaded
Rome as a hostile country.the interference of the sabre with the
constitutional rule of the bludgeon.
Marius escaped them and fled to Minturnae without a companion or a
servant. While he was resting in a secluded house the magistrates of the
city, whose fears were excited by the proclamation of the Roman people, but
who hesitated to be the murderers of a man who had been six times consul and
had performed so many brilliant exploits, sent a Gaul who was living there
to kill him with a sword. It is said that as the Gaul was approaching the
pallet of Marius in the dusk he thought he saw the gleam and flash of fire
darting from his eyes, and that Marius rose from his bed and shouted to him
in a thundering voice, Do you dare to kill Gaius Marius?
The Gaul turned
and fled out of doors like a madman, exclaiming, I cannot kill Gaius
Marius.
As the magistrates had come to their previous decision with
reluctance, so now a kind of religious awe came over them as they remembered
the prophecy uttered while he was a boy, that he should be consul seven
times. It was said that while he was a boy seven young eaglets alighted on
his breast, and that the soothsayers predicted that he would attain the
highest office seven times.
Bearing these things in mind and believing that the Gaul had been inspired with fear by divine influence, the magistrates of Minturnae sent Marius out of the town forthwith, to seek safety wherever he could. As he knew that Sulla was searching for him and that horsemen were pursuing him, he moved toward the sea by unfrequented roads and came to a hut where he rested, covering himself up with leaves. Hearing a noise, he concealed himself more carefully with the leaves. Hearing a somewhat louder noise, he rushed to the boat of an old fisherman, overpowered him, leaped into it, and, although a storm was raging, he cut the rope, spread the sail, and committed himself to chance. He was driven to an island where he found a ship navigated by his own friends, and sailed thence to Africa. He was prohibited from landing there by the governor, Sextius, because he was an enemy, and he passed the winter in his ship a little beyond the province of Africa, along the shore of Numidia. While he was sailing thither he was joined by Cethegus, Granius, Albinovanus, Laetorius, and others, including the son of Marius himself, who had gained tidings of his approach. They had fled from Rome to Hiempsal, prince of Numidia, and now they had run away from him, fearing lest they should be delivered up. They were ready to do just as Sulla had done, that is, to master their country by force, but as they had no army they waited for some opportunity.
In Rome Sulla, who had been the first one to seize the city by force of arms,
and was now able perhaps to wield supreme power, having rid himself of his
enemies, desisted from violence of his own accord. He sent his army forward
to Capua and resumed his functions as consul. The faction under banishment,
especially the rich ones, and many wealthy women, who now found a respite
from the terror of arms, bestirred themselves for the return of their male
relatives from exile. They spared neither pains nor expense to this end,
even conspiring against the persons of the consuls when they thought they
could not secure the recall of their friends while the consuls survived.
Sulla’s army furnished ample protection for himself even after he should
cease to be consul, since he had been voted commander of the war against
Mithridates. The people commiserated the fears of the other consul, Quintus
Pompeius, for his personal safety, and gave him the command of Italy and of
the army appertaining to it, which was then under Gnaeus Pompeius.
When the latter learned this fact he was greatly displeased. Nevertheless he
received Quintus in the camp, and, after transacting the necessary business
with him the following day, withdrew for a short time as a private person,
but a little later a crowd that had collected around the consul under
pretence of listening to him killed him. After the guilty ones had fled,
Gnaeus came to the camp in a high state of indignation over the
killing of a consul contrary to law. Notwithstanding his displeasure he
forthwith resumed his command over them.
When the murder of Pompeius became known in
Cinna, who had been emboldened by the numbers of the new citizens to think
that he should conquer, seeing the victory won contrary to his expectation
by the bravery of the few, ran through the city calling the slaves to his
assistance by an offer of freedom. As none responded he hastened to the
towns near by, which had lately been admitted to Roman citizenship, Tibur,
Praeneste, and the rest as far as Nola, inciting them all to
revolution and collecting money for the purposes of war. While Cinna was
making these preparations and plans, certain senators of his party joined
him, among them Gaius Milo, Quintus Sertorius, and Gaius Marius the younger.
The Senate decreed that since Cinna had left the city in danger while
holding the office of consul, and had offered freedom to the slaves, he
should no longer be consul, or even a citizen, and elected in his stead
Lucius Merula, the priest of Jupiter (From you, citizens, I received this authority. The
people voted it to me; the Senate has taken it away from me without your
consent. Although I am the sufferer by this wrong I grieve amid my own
troubles equally for your sakes. What need is there that we should solicit
the favor of the tribes in the elections hereafter? What need have we of
you? Where will be your power in the assemblies, in the elections, in the
choice of consuls? If you do not confirm what you bestow, you will be robbed
whenever you give your decision.
He said this to stir them up, and after exciting much pity for himself he rent his garments, leaped down from the rostra, and threw himself on the ground before them, where he lay a long time. With tears in their eyes they raised him up; they restored him to the curule chair; they lifted up the fasces and bade him be of good cheer, as he was consul still, and lead them wherever he would. At their instance the officers came forward and took the military oath to support Cinna, and administered it each to the soldiers under him. When he had been confirmed in this way he traversed the allied cities and stirred them up also, because it was on their account chiefly that this misfortune had happened to him. They furnished him both money and soldiers; and many others, even of the aristocratic party in Rome, to whom a stable form of government was irksome, came and joined him. While Cinna was thus occupied, the consuls, Octavius and Merula, fortified the city with trenches, repaired the walls, and planted engines on them. To raise an army they sent around to the towns that were still faithful and also to the neighboring Gauls. They also summoned Gnaeus Pompeius, the proconsul who commanded the army on the Adriatic, to come in haste to the aid of his country.
Pompeius came and encamped before the Colline gate. Cinna advanced against him and encamped near him. When Gaius Marius heard of these transactions he sailed to Etruria with his fellow-exiles and about 500 slaves who had joined their masters from Rome. Filthy and longhaired, he marched through the towns presenting a pitiable appearance, descanting on his battles, his victories over the Cimbri, and his six consulships; and what was extremely pleasing to them, promising, and also seeming, to be faithful to their interests in the matter of the voting. In this way he collected 6000 Etruscans and joined Cinna, who received him gladly by reason of their common interest in the present enterprise. After their armies were joined they encamped on the banks of the Tiber and divided their forces in three parts: Cinna and Carbo opposite the city, Sertorius above it, and Marius toward the sea. The two latter threw bridges across the river in order to cut off the city’s food-supply. Marius captured Ostia and plundered it. Cinna sent a force and captured Ariminum in order to prevent an army coming to the city from the subject Gauls.
The consuls were alarmed. They needed more troops, but they were unable to call Sulla because he had already crossed over to Asia. They ordered Caecilius Metellus, who was carrying on the remainder of the Social War against the Samnites, to make peace on the best terms he could, and come to the rescue of his beleaguered country. Metellus would not agree to what the Samnites demanded, and when Marius heard of this he made an engagement with them to grant all that they asked from Metellus. In this way the Samnites became allies of Marius. Appius Claudius, a military tribune, who had command of the defences of Rome at the hill called the Janiculum, had once received a favor from Marius which the latter now reminded him of, in consequence of which he admitted him into the city, opening a gate for him at about daybreak. Then Marius admitted Cinna. They were thrust out by Octavius and Pompeius, who attacked them together, but a severe thunder-storm broke upon the camp of Pompeius, and he was killed by lightning together with others of the nobility.
After Marius had stopped the passage of food-supplies from the sea, or by way of the river above, he hastened to attack the neighboring towns where grain was stored for the Romans. He fell upon their garrisons unexpectedly and captured Antium, Aricia, Lanuvium, and others. There were some also that were delivered up to him by treachery. Having cut off their supplies by land in this manner, he advanced boldly against Rome, by the so-called Appian Way, before any other supplies were brought to them by another route. He and Cinna, and their lieutenant-generals, Carbo and Sertorius, halted at a distance of 100 stades from the city and went into camp. Octavius, Crassus, and Metellus had taken position against them at the Alban Mount, where they observed the enemy’s movements. Although they considered themselves superior in bravery and numbers, they hesitated to risk hastily their country’s fate on the hazard of a single battle. Cinna sent heralds around the city to offer freedom to slaves who would desert to him, and forthwith a large number did desert. The Senate was alarmed. Anticipating the most serious consequences from the people if the scarcity of corn should be protracted, it changed its mind and sent envoys to Cinna to treat for peace. The latter asked them whether they had come to see him as a consul or as a private citizen. They were at a loss for an answer and went back to the city; and now a large number of freemen flocked to Cinna, some from fear of famine and others because they had been previously favorable to his party and had been waiting to see which way the scales would turn.
Now Cinna began to despise his enemies and drew near to the wall, halting at the distance of a stone’s throw, where he encamped. Octavius and his party were undecided and fearful, and hesitated to attack him on account of the desertions and the negotiations. The Senate was greatly perplexed and considered it a dreadful thing to depose Lucius Merula, the priest of Jupiter, who had been chosen consul in place of Cinna, and who had done nothing wrong in his office. Yet on account of the impending danger it reluctantly sent envoys to Cinna again, and this time as consul. They no longer expected favorable terms, so they only asked that Cinna should swear to them that he would abstain from bloodshed. He refused to take the oath, but he promised nevertheless that he would not willingly be the cause of anybody’s death. He directed, however, that Octavius, who had gone around and entered the city by another gate, should keep away from the forum lest anything should befall him against Cinna’s will. This answer he delivered to the envoys from a high platform in his character as consul. Marius stood beside the curule chair silent, but showed by the asperity of his countenance how much murder he would commit. When the Senate had accepted these terms and had invited Cinna and Marius to enter (for it was understood that all the things that Cinna had subscribed to were the doings of Marius), the latter said with a scornful smile that it was not lawful for the banished to enter. Forthwith the tribunes voted to repeal the decree of banishment against him and all the others who were expelled under the consulship of Sulla.
Accordingly Cinna and Marius entered the city and everybody received them with fear. Straightway they began to plunder without restraint the goods of those who were supposed to be of the opposite party. Cinna and Marius had sworn to Octavius, and the augurs and soothsayers had predicted, that he would suffer no harm, yet his friends advised him to fly. He replied that he would never desert the city while he was consul. So he withdrew from the forum to the Janiculum with the nobility and what was left of his army, where he occupied the curule chair and wore his robes of office, attended by lictors as a consul. Here he was attacked by Censorinus with a body of horse, and again his friends and the soldiers who stood by him urged him to fly and brought him a horse, but he disdained even to arise, and awaited death. Censorinus cut off his head and carried it to Cinna, and it was suspended in the forum in front of the rostra, the first head of a consul that was so exposed. After him the heads of others who were slain were suspended there. This shocking custom, which began with Octavius, was not discontinued, but was handed down to subsequent intestine massacres. Now the victors sent out spies to search for their enemies of the senatorial and equestrian orders. After the knights were killed no further attention was paid to them, but all the heads of senators were exposed in front of the rostra. Neither reverence for the gods, nor the indignation of men, nor the fear of odium for their acts existed any longer among them. After committing savage deeds they turned to hideous sights. They killed remorselessly and severed the necks of men already dead, and they paraded these horrors before the public eye, either to inspire fear and terror, or for a monstrous spectacle.
Gaius Julius and Lucius Julius, two brothers, Atilius Serranus, Publius Lentulus, Gaius Numatorius, and Marcus Baebius were arrested in the street and killed. Crassus was pursued with his son. He anticipated the pursuers by killing his son, but was himself killed by them. Marcus Antonius, the orator, fled to a certain country place, where he was concealed and entertained by the farmer, who sent his slave to a tavern for wine of a better quality than he was in the habit of buying. The innkeeper asked him why he wanted the better quality. The slave whispered the reason to him, bought the wine, and went back. The seller ran and told Marius. When Marius heard this he sprang up with joy as though he would rush to do the deed himself, but he was restrained by his friends. A tribune was despatched to the house, who sent some soldiers upstairs, whom Antonius, a delightful speaker, entertained with a long discourse. He moved their pity by recounting many and various things, until the tribune, who was at a loss to know what had happened, rushed into the house and, finding his soldiers listening to Antonius, killed him while he was still addressing them, and sent his head to Marius.
Cornutus concealed himself in a hut and was saved by his slaves in an ingenious way. They found a dead body and placed it on a funeral pile, and when the searchers came they set fire to it and said that they were burning the body of their master, who had hanged himself. In this way he was saved by his slaves. Quintus Ancharius watched his opportunity till Marius was about to offer sacrifice in the Capitol, hoping that the temple would be a more propitious place for him. But when he approached and saluted Marius, the latter, who was just beginning the sacrifice, ordered the guards to kill him in the Capitol forthwith; and his head, with that of the orator Antonius, and those of others who had been consuls and praetors, was exposed in the forum. Burial was not permitted to any of the slain. The bodies of such men as these were torn in pieces by birds and dogs. There was also much private and irresponsible murder committed by the factions upon each other. There were banishments, and confiscations of property, and depositions from office, and a repeal of the laws enacted during Sulla’s consulship. All of Sulla’s friends were put to death, his house was razed to the ground, his property confiscated, and himself voted a public enemy. Search was made for his wife and children, but they escaped. Altogether no sort of calamity was wanting, either general or particular.
In addition to the foregoing and under the similitude of legal authority, and
after so many had been put to death without trial, accusers were suborned to
make false charges against Merula, the priest of Jupiter, who was hated
because he had been the successor of Cinna in the consulship, although he
had committed no other fault. Accusation was also brought against Lutatius
Catulus, who had been the colleague of Marius in the war against the Cimbri,
and whose life Marius once saved. It was charged that he had been very
ungrateful to Marius and was bitter against him when he was banished. These
men were put under secret surveillance, and when the day for holding court
arrived were summoned to trial (the proper way was to put the accused under
arrest after they had been cited four times at certain fixed intervals), but
Merula had opened his own veins, and a tablet lying at his side showed that
when he cut his veins he had removed his flamen’s cap, for it was accounted
a sin for the priest to wear it at his death. Catulus suffocated himself
with burning charcoal in a chamber newly plastered and still moist. So these
two men perished. The slaves who had joined Cinna in answer to his
proclamation and had thereupon been freed and were at this time enrolled in
the army by Cinna himself, broke into and plundered houses, and killed
persons whom they met on the street. Some of them attacked their own masters
particularly. After Cinna had forbidden this several times, but without
avail, he surrounded them with his Gallic soldiery one night while they were
taking their rest, and killed them all. Thus did the slaves receive fit
punishment for their repeated treachery to their masters.
The following year Cinna was chosen consul for the
Sulla now hastened his return to meet his enemies, having quickly finished
all his business with Mithridates, as I have already related. Within less
than three years he had killed 160,000 men, recovered Greece, Macedonia,
Ionia, Asia, and many other countries that Mithridates had previously
occupied, taken the king’s fleet away from him, and from such vast
possessions restricted him to his paternal kingdom alone. He returned with a
large and well-disciplined army, devoted to him and elated by its exploits.
Sulla wrote to the Senate in a tone of superiority concerning himself. He
recounted what he had done in Africa in the Jugurthine war while he was
still quaestor, what he had done as lieutenant in the Cimbric war,
as praetor in Cilicia and in the Social war, and as consul. Most of
all he dwelt upon his recent victories in the Mithridatic war, enumerating
to them the many nations that had been under Mithridates and that he had
recovered for the Romans. Of nothing did he make more account than that
those who had been banished from Rome by Cinna had fled to him, and that he
had received the helpless ones and supported them in their affliction. In
return for which he said that he had been declared a public enemy by his
foes, his house had been destroyed, his friends put to death, and his wife
and children had with difficulty made their escape to him. He would be there
presently to take vengeance, for them and for the entire city, upon the
guilty ones. He assured the other citizens, and the new citizens, that he
made no complaint against them. When the contents of the letters became
known fear fell upon all, and they began sending messengers to reconcile him
with his enemies and to tell him in advance that if he wanted any security
he should write to the Senate at once. They ordered Cinna and Carbo to cease
recruiting soldiers until Sulla’s answer should be received. They promised
to do so, but as soon as the messengers had gone they proclaimed themselves
consuls for the ensuing year so that they need not come back to the city
directly to hold the election. They traversed Italy, collecting soldiers
whom they carried across by detachments on shipboard to Liburnia,
The first detachment had a prosperous voyage. The
Sulla answered those who came to him from the Senate, saying that he would
never be on friendly terms with the men who had committed such crimes. Still
he would not prevent the city from extending clemency to them. As for
security he said that, as he had a devoted army, he could better furnish
lasting security to them, and to those who had fled to his camp, than they
to him; whereby it was made plain in a single sentence that he would not
disband his army, but was contemplating the exercise of supreme power. He
demanded of them his former dignity, his property, and the sacerdotal
office, and that they should restore to him in full measure whatever other
honors he had previously held. He sent some of his own men with the Senate’s
messengers to confer about these matters. As soon as they learned from the
Brundusians that Cinna was dead and that Rome was in an unsettled state,
they went back to Sulla without transacting their business.
He was met on the road by Caecilius Metellus Pius, who had been chosen some time before to finish up the Social War, but who did not return to the. city for fear of Cinna and Marius. He had been awaiting the turn of events in Liguria, and now offered himself as a volunteer ally with the force under his command, as he was still a proconsul; for those who have been chosen to this office retain it till they come back to Rome. After Metellus, came Pompey, who not long afterward was surnamed the Great, son of the Pompeius who was killed by lightning and who was supposed to be unfriendly to Sulla. The son removed this suspicion by coming with a legion which he had collected from the territory of Picenum on the reputation of his father, who had been very influential there. A little later he recruited two more legions and became Sulla’s most useful right-hand man in these affairs. So Sulla held him in honor, though still very young; and they say he rose at the entrance of none other than this youth. After the war was finished Sulla sent him to Africa to drive out the party of Carbo and to restore Hiempsal (who had been expelled by the Numidians) to his kingdom. For this service Sulla allowed him a triumph over the Numidians, although he was under age, and was still in the equestrian order. He took his start to greatness from this beginning, and was sent against Sertorius in Spain and later against Mithridates in Pontus. Cethegus also joined Sulla, although with Cinna and Marius he had been violently hostile to him and had been driven out of the city with them. He was now a suppliant, and offered his services to Sulla in any capacity he might desire.
Sulla now had plenty of soldiers and a sufficient number of friends of the higher orders, whom he used as lieutenants. He and Metellus, who were both proconsuls, marched in advance, for it seems that Sulla, who had been appointed proconsul against Mithridates, had at no time laid down his command, although he had been voted a public enemy at the instance of Cinna. Now Sulla moved against his enemies with a most intense yet concealed hatred. The people in the city, who had formed a pretty fair judgment of the character of the man, and who remembered his former attack and capture of the city, and who took into account the decrees they had proclaimed against him, and who had witnessed the destruction of his house, the confiscation of his property, the killing of his friends, and the narrow escape of his family, were in a state of terror. Conceiving that there was no middle ground between victory and utter destruction, they united with the consuls to resist Sulla, but with trepidation. They despatched messengers throughout Italy to collect soldiers, provisions, and money, and, as in cases of extreme peril, they omitted nothing that zeal and earnestness could suggest.
Gaius Norbanus and Lucius Scipio, who were then the consuls, and with them Carbo, who had been consul the previous year (all of them moved by equal hatred of Sulla and more fearful than others because they knew that they were more to blame for what had been done), levied the best possible army from the city, obtained an additional one from Italy, and marched against Sulla in detachments. They had 200 cohorts of 500 men each at first, and their forces were considerably augmented afterward. The sympathies of the people were much in favor of the consuls, because the action of Sulla, who was marching against his country, seemed to be that of an enemy, while that of the consuls, even if they were working for themselves, was ostensibly the cause of the republic. Many persons, too, who knew that they had shared the guilt of the consuls, and who were believed to share their fears, coöperated with them. They knew very well that Sulla was not meditating merely prevention, correction, and alarm for them, but destruction, death, confiscation, and complete extermination. In this they were not mistaken, for the war ruined everything. From 10,000 to 20,000 men were slain in a single battle more than once. Fifty thousand on both sides lost their lives around the city, and to the survivors Sulla was unsparing in severity, both to individuals and to communities, until, finally, he made himself the undisputed master of the whole Roman government, so far as he wished or cared to be.
It seems, too, that divine Providence foretold to them the results of this war. Sights terrible and unexpected were observed by many, both in public and in private, throughout all Italy. Ancient, awe-inspiring oracles were remembered. Many monstrous things happened. A mule gave birth to a colt. A pregnant woman was delivered of a viper instead of a baby. There was a severe earthquake divinely sent and some of the temples in Rome were thrown down (the Romans gave altogether too much attention to such things). The Capitol, that had been built by the kings 400 years before, burned down, and nobody could discover the cause of the fire. All things seemed to point to a succession of slaughters, to the conquest of Italy and of the Romans themselves, to the capture of the city, and a change in the form of government.
This war began as soon as Sulla arrived at Brundusium, which was in the 174th Olympiad. Considering the magnitude of the work accomplished, its length was not great, compared with such wars in general, since the combatants rushed upon each other with the fury of private enemies. For this reason greater and more distressing calamities than usual befell the eager participants in a short space of time. Nevertheless the war lasted three years in Italy alone, until Sulla had secured the supreme power, but in Spain it continued even after Sulla’s death. Battles, skirmishes, sieges, and fighting of all kinds were numerous throughout Italy, both regular engagements under the generals and by detachments, and all were noteworthy. The greatest and most remarkable of them I shall mention in this book. First of all Sulla and Metellus fought a battle against Norbanus at Canusium and killed 6000 of his men, while Sulla’s loss was seventy, but many of his men were wounded. Norbanus retreated to Capua.
While Sulla and Metellus were near Teanum, L. Scipio advanced against them
with another army which was very downhearted and longed for peace. The
Sullan faction knew this and sent envoys to Scipio to negotiate, not because
they hoped or desired to come to an agreement, but because they expected to
create dissensions in Scipio’s army, which was in a state of dejection. In
this they succeeded. Scipio took hostages for the armistice and marched down
to the plain. Only three from each side came to the conference, hence what
passed between them is not known. It seems that during the armistice Scipio
sent Sertorius to his colleague, Norbanus, to communicate with him
concerning the negotiation and that there was a cessation of hostilities
while they were waiting for an answer. Sertorius on his way took possession
of Suessa, which had espoused the side of Sulla, and Sulla made complaint of
this to Scipio. The latter, either because he was privy to the affair or
because he did not know what answer to make concerning the strange act of
Sertorius, sent back Sulla’s hostages. His army blamed the consuls for the
unjustifiable seizure of Suessa during the armistice and for the surrender
of the hostages, who were not demanded back, and made a secret agreement
with Sulla to go over to him if he would draw nearer. This he did and
straightway they all went over
When Sulla was unable to induce Scipio to change, he sent him away with his
son unharmed. He also sent other envoys to Norbanus at Capua to open
negotiations, either because he was apprehensive of the result (since the
greater part of Italy still adhered to the consuls), or in order to play the
same game on him that he had played on Scipio. As nobody came back and no
answer was returned (for it seems that Norbanus feared lest he should be
accused by his army in the same way that Scipio had been), Sulla again
advanced, devastating all hostile territory. Norbanus did the same thing on
other roads. Carbo hastened to the city and caused Metellus, and all the
other senators who had joined Sulla, to be decreed public enemies. It was at
this time that the Capitol was burned. Some attributed this deed to Carbo,
others to the consuls, others to somebody sent by Sulla. It was a great
mystery; nor am I able now to conjecture what caused the fire. Sertorius,
who had been some time previously chosen praetor for Spain, after
the taking of Suessa fled to his provincet and as the former
praetors refused to recognize his authority, he stirred up a great
deal of trouble for the Romans there. In the meantime the forces of the
consuls were constantly increasing from the major part of. Italy, which
still adhered to them, and also from the neighboring Gauls on the Po. Nor
was Sulla idle. He sent messengers to all parts of Italy that he could
reach, to collect troops by friendship, by fear, by money, and by promises.
In this way the remainder of the summer was consumed on both sides.
The consuls for the following year were Papirius Carbo again and Marius, the
nephew of the great Marius, then twenty-seven years of age. At first the
winter and severe frost kept the combatants apart. At the beginning of
spring, on the banks of the river Aesis, there was a severe
engagement lasting from early morning till noon between Metellus and
Carinas, Carbo’s lieutenant. Carinas was put to flight after heavy loss,
whereupon all the country thereabout seceded from the consuls to Metellus.
Carbo came up with Metellus and besieged him until he heard that Marius, the
other consul, had been defeated in a great battle near Praeneste,
when he led his forces back to Ariminum. Pompey hung on his rear doing
damage. The defeat at Praeneste was in this wise. Sulla captured
the town of
About the same time Metellus gained a victory over the other army of Carbo, and here again five cohorts, for safety’s sake, deserted to Metellus during the battle. Pompey overcame Marcius near Senae and plundered the town. Sulla, having shut Marius up in Praeneste, drew a line of circumvallation around the town a considerable distance from it and left the work in charge of Lucretius Ofella, as he intended to reduce Marius by famine, not by fighting. When Marius saw that his condition was hopeless he hastened to put his private enemies out of the way. He wrote to Brutus, the city praetor, to call the Senate together on some pretext or other and to kill Publius Antistius, the other Papirius, Lucius Domitius, and Mucius Scaevola, the pontifex maximus. Of these the two first were slain in their seats as Marius had ordered, assassins having been introduced into the senate-house for this purpose. Domitius ran out, but was killed at the door, and Scaevola was killed a little farther away. Their bodies were thrown into the Tiber, for it was now the custom not to bury the slain. Sulla sent an army to Rome in detachments by different roads with orders to seize the gates, and if they were repulsed to rendezvous at Ostia. The towns on the way received them with fear and trembling, and the city opened its gates to them because the people were oppressed by hunger, and because, of present evils, they were accustomed to yield to the ones which were immediately weighing upon them.
When Sulla learned this he came on immediately and established his army before the gates in the Campus Martius. He went inside himself, all of the opposite faction having fled. Their property was at once confiscated and exposed to public sale. Sulla summoned the people to an assembly, where he lamented the necessity of his present doings and told them to cheer up, as the troubles would soon be over and the government go as it ought. Having arranged such matters as were pressing and put some of his own men in charge of the city, he set out for Clusium, where the war was still raging. In the meantime a body of Celtiberian horse, sent by the praetors in Spain, had joined the consuls, and there was a cavalry fight on the banks of the river Glanis. Sulla killed about fifty of the enemy, and then 270 of the Celtiberian horse deserted to him, and Carbo himself killed the rest of them, either because he was angry at the desertion of their countrymen or because he feared similar action on their own part. About the same time Sulla overcame another detachment of his enemies near Saturnia, and Metellus sailed around toward Ravenna and took possession of the level, wheat-growing country of Uritanus. Another Sullan division effected an entrance into Neapolis by treachery in the night, killed all the inhabitants except a few who had made their escape, and seized the triremes belonging to the city. A severe battle was fought near Clusium between Sulla himself and Carbo, lasting all day. Neither party had the advantage when darkness put an end to the conflict.
In the plain of Spoletium, Pompey and Crassus, both Sulla’s officers, killed some 3000 of Carbo’s men and besieged Carinas, the opposing general. Carbo sent reënforcements to Carinas, but Sulla learned of their movement, laid an ambush for them, and killed about 2000 of them on the road. Carinas escaped by night during a heavy rain-storm and thick darkness, and although the besiegers were aware of some movement, they made no opposition on account of the storm. Carbo sent Marcius with eight legions to the relief of his colleague, Marius, at Praeneste, having heard that he was suffering from hunger. Pompey fell upon them from ambush in a defile, defeated them, killed a large number, and surrounded the remainder on a hill. Marcius made his escape, leaving his fires burning. His army blamed him for being caught in an ambush and stirred up an angry mutiny. One whole legion marched off under their standards to Ariminum without orders. The rest separated and went home in squads, so that only seven cohorts remained with their general. Marcius, having made a mess of it in this way, returned to Carbo. However, Marcus Lamponius from Lucania, Pontius Telesinus from Samnium, and Gutta the Capuan, with 70,000 men, hastened to deliver Marius from the siege, but Sulla occupied a pass which was the only approach to the place, and blocked the road. Marius now despaired of aid from without, and built a citadel in the wide space between himself and the enemy, within which he collected his soldiers and his engines, and from which he attempted to force his way through the besieging army of Lucretius. The attempt was renewed several days in different ways, but he accomplished nothing and was again shut up in Praeneste.
About the same time Carbo and Norbanus went by a short road to attack the camp of Metellus in Faventia just before nightfall. There was only one hour of daylight left, and there were thick vineyards thereabout. They made their plans for battle in hot temper and not with good judgment, hoping to take Metellus unawares and to stampede him. But they were beaten, both the place and the time being unfavorable for them. They became entangled in the vines, and suffered a heavy slaughter, losing some 10,000 men. About 6000 more deserted, and the rest were dispersed, only 1000 getting back to Ariminum in good order. Another legion of Lucanians under Albinovanus, when they heard of this defeat, went over to Metellus to the great chagrin of their leader. As the latter was not able to restrain this impulse of his men, he, for the time, returned to Norbanus. Not many days later he sent secretly to Sulla, and having obtained a promise of safety from him, if he should accomplish anything important, he invited Norbanus and his lieutenants, Gaius Antipater and Flavius Fimbria (brother of the one who committed suicide in Asia), together with such of Carbo’s lieutenants as were then present, to a feast. When they had all assembled except Norbanus (he was the only one who did not come), Albinovanus killed them all at the banquet and then fled to Sulla. Norbanus having learned that, in consequence of this disaster, Ariminum and many other camps in the vicinity were going over to Sulla, and being unable to rely on the good faith and firm support of any of his friends there present, since he found himself in adversity, took ship as a private individual and sailed to Rhodes. When, at a later period, Sulla demanded his surrender, and while the Rhodians were deliberating on it, he killed himself in the market-place.
Carbo sent Damasippus in haste with two other legions to Praeneste
to relieve Marius, who was still besieged, but not even these could force
their way through the pass that was guarded by Sulla. The Gauls who
inhabited the country lying between Ravenna and the Alps went over to
Metellus
Sulla feared for the safety of the city, and sent his cavalry forward with all speed to hinder their march, and then hastened in person with his whole army and encamped alongside the Colline gate around the temple of Venus about noon. The enemy were already encamped around the city. A battle was fought at once, late in the afternoon. On the right wing Sulla was victorious. His left wing was vanquished and fled to the gates. The old soldiers on the walls, when they saw the enemy rushing in with their own men, dropped the portcullis. It fell upon and killed many soldiers and many senators. But the majority, impelled by fear and necessity, turned and fought the enemy. The fighting continued through the night and a great many were killed. The generals, Telesinus and Albinus, were killed and their camp was taken. Lamponius the Lucanian, Marcius, and Carinas, and the other generals of the faction of Carbo, fled. It was estimated that 50,000 men on both sides lost their lives in this engagement. Prisoners, to the number of more than 8000, were shot down with darts by Sulla because they were mostly Samnites. The next day Marcius and Carinas were captured and brought in. Sulla did not spare them because they were Romans, but killed them both and sent their heads to Lucretius at Praeneste to be displayed around the walls.
When the Praenestians saw them and knew that Carbo’s army was completely destroyed, and that Norbanus himself had fled from Italy, and that Rome and all the rest of Italy were in the power of Sulla, they surrendered their city to Lucretius. Marius hid himself in an underground tunnel and shortly afterward committed suicide. Lucretius cut off his head and sent it to Sulla, who exposed it in the forum in front of the rostra. It is said that he indulged in a jest at the youth of the consul, saying that one ought to be a rower before he manages the helm. When Lucretius took Praeneste he seized the senators who had held commands under Marius, and put some of them to death and cast the others into prison. The latter were put to death by Sulla when he came that way. All the others who were taken in Praeneste he ordered to march out to the plain without arms, and when they had done so he chose out a very few who had been in any way serviceable to him. The remainder he ordered to be divided into three parts, consisting of Romans, Samnites, and Praenestians respectively. When this had been done he announced to the Romans by herald that they had merited death, but nevertheless he would pardon them. The others he massacred to the last man. He allowed their wives and children to go unharmed. He plundered the town, which was extremely rich at that time. In this way was Praeneste served. Norba, another town, still resisted with all its might until Aemilius Lepidus was admitted to it in the night by treachery. The inhabitants were maddened by this treason. Some killed themselves, or fell on each other’s swords, others strangled themselves with ropes. Still others closed the gates and set fire to the town. A strong wind fanned the flames, which so far consumed the place that no plunder was left in it. In this way did these stout-hearted men perish.
After accomplishing these deeds throughout Italy by war, fire, and murder,
Sulla’s generals visited the several cities and established garrisons at the
suspected places. Pompey was despatched to Africa against Carbo and to
Sicily against Carbo’s friends who had taken refuge there. Sulla himself
called the Roman people together in an assembly and made them a speech
vaunting his own exploits and making other menacing statements in order to
inspire terror. He finished by saying that he would bring about a change
which would be beneficial to the public if they would obey him. He would not
spare one of his enemies, but would visit them with the utmost severity. He
would take vengeance by every means in his power on all praetors,
quaestors, military tribunes, and everybody else who had committed
any hostile act after the day when the consul Scipio violated the agreement
made with him. After saying this he forthwith proscribed about forty
senators and 1600 knights. This total,
he adds, is given by Valerius
Maximus, ix. 2, i. According to Appian (
(
There was much killing, banishment, and confiscation also among those Italians who had obeyed Carbo, or Marius, or Norbanus, or their lieutenants. Severe judgments of the courts were rendered against them throughout all Italy on various charges—for exercising military command, for serving in the army, for contributing money, for rendering other service, or even giving counsel against Sulla. Hospitality, private friendship, the borrowing or lending of money, were alike accounted crimes. Now and then one would be arrested for doing a kindness to a suspect, or merely for being his companion on a journey. These accusations abounded mostly against the rich. When charges against individuals failed Sulla took vengeance on whole communities. He punished some of them by demolishing their citadels, or destroying their walls, or by imposing heavy fines and contributions on them. Among most of them he placed colonies of his troops in order to hold Italy under garrisons, sequestrating their lands and houses and dividing them among his soldiers, whom he thus made true to him during his life and even after his death. As they could not be secure in their own holdings unless all of Sulla’s affairs were on a firm foundation, they were his stoutest champions even after he was deceased. While the affairs of Italy were in this state, Pompey sent a force and captured Carbo, who had fled with many persons of distinction from Africa to Sicily and thence to the island of Cossyra. He ordered his officers to kill all of the others without bringing them into his presence; but Carbo, who had been thrice consul, he caused to be brought before his feet in chains, and after making a public harangue at him, killed him and sent his head to Sulla.
When everything had been accomplished against his enemies as he desired, and
there was no longer any hostile force except that of Sertorius, who was far
distant, Sulla sent Metellus into Spain against him and managed everything
in the city to suit himself. There was no longer any occasion for laws, or
elections, or for casting lots, because everybody was shivering with fear
and in hiding, or dumb. Everything that Sulla had done as consul, or as
proconsul, was confirmed and ratified, and his gilded equestrian statue was
erected in front of the rostra with the inscription, Cornelius Sulla, a
fortunate commander,
for so his flatterers called him on account of his
unbroken success against his enemies. And this flattering title still
attaches to him. I have come across a history which relates that Sulla was
styled Epaphroditus
Believe me, Roman, the Cyprian goddess cares for the race of Aeneas
and has given it great power. Render yearly gifts to all the immortals, and
do not forget them. Convey gifts to Delphi. There is also a place where men
go up under snowy Taurus, a wide-reaching city of the Carians,
Whichever decree the Romans voted when they erected the statue, they seem to me to have made the inscription by way of jest or cajolery. However, Sulla sent a golden crown and an axe to Venus with this inscription:—
The dictator Sulla dedicates this to thee, Venus, because in a dream he saw
thee in panoply setting the army in order of battle and fighting with the
weapons of Mars.
Thus Sulla became king, or tyrant,
Such was Sulla’s letter. The Romans were unwilling, but they had no more
opportunities for elections according to law, and they considered that this
matter was not altogether in their own power. So, in the absence of
everything else, they welcomed this pretence of an election as an image and
semblance of freedom and chose Sulla their absolute master for as long a
time as he pleased. There had been autocratic rule of the dictators before,
but it was limited to short periods. But in Sulla’s time it first became
unlimited and so an absolute tyranny; yet they added, for propriety’s sake,
that they chose him dictator for the enactment of such laws as he might deem
best and for the regulation of the commonwealth. Thus the Romans, after
having government by kings for sixty Olympiads, and a democracy, under
consuls chosen yearly, for 100 Olympiads, resorted to kingly government
again. This was in the 175th Olympiad according to the Greek calendar, but
there were no Olympic games then except races in the stadium, since Sulla
had carried away the athletes and all the sights and shows to Rome to
celebrate his victories in the Mithridatic and Italian wars, under the
pretext that the masses needed a breathing-spell and recreation after their
toils.
Nevertheless, as the form of the republic remained
So terrible was he and so uncontrollable in anger that he slew in the middle
of the forum Q. Lucretius Ofella, the one who had besieged and captured
Praeneste and the consul Marius, and had won the final victory for
him. He did this because, in spite of the new law, Lucretius persisted,
though Sulla opposed and forbade, in being a candidate for the consulship
while he was still in the equestrian order and before he had been
quaestor and praetor, presuming on the greatness of his
services, according to the former custom, and captivating the populace. Then
Sulla assembled the people and said to them, Know, citizens, and learn from
me, that I caused the death of Lucretius because he disobeyed me.
And then
he told the following story: A husbandman was bitten by fleas while
ploughing. He stopped his ploughing twice in order to clear them out of his
shirt. When they bit him. again he burned his shirt, so that he might not be
so often interrupted in his work. And I tell you, who have felt my hand
twice, to take warning lest the third time fire be brought in requisition.
With these words he terrified them and thereafter ruled as he pleased. He
had a triumph on account of the Mithridatic war, during which some of the
scoffers called his government the royalty disavowed
because only the
name of king was concealed. Others took the contrary view, judging from his
acts, and called it the tyranny confessed.
Into such evils were the Romans and all the Italians plunged by this war; and so likewise were all the countries beyond Italy by the recent piracies, or by the Mithridatic war, or by the many exhausting taxes levied to meet the deficit in the public treasury due to the seditions. All the allied nations and kings, and not only the tributary cities, but those which had delivered themselves to the Romans voluntarily under sworn agreements, and those which by virtue of their furnishing aid in war or for some other merit were autonomous and not subject to tribute, all were now required to pay and to obey. Some that had surrendered themselves under treaty arrangements were deprived of their territory and their harbors. Sulla decreed that Alexander (the son of Alexander the former sovereign of Egypt), who had been reared in Cos and given to Mithridates by the inhabitants of that island, and had fled to Sulla and become intimate with him, should be king of Alexandria. He did this because the government of Alexandria was destitute of a sovereign in the male line, and the women of the royal house wanted a man of the same lineage, and because he (Sulla) expected to reap a large reward from the rich kingdom. As Alexander behaved himself in a very offensive manner toward them, relying upon Sulla, the Alexandrians, on the nineteenth day of his reign, dragged him from the palace to the gymnasium and put him to death; so little fear had they of foreigners, either by reason of the magnitude of their own government or their inexperience as yet of external dangers.
The following year Sulla, although he was dictator,
So great was this man’s boldness and good fortune. It is said that he made a
speech in the forum when he laid down his power in which he offered to give
the reasons for what he had done to anybody who should ask them. He
dismissed the lictors with their axes and discontinued his body-guard, and
for a long time walked to the forum with only a few friends, the multitude
looking upon him with awe even then. Once only when he was going home he was
reproached by a boy. As nobody restrained this boy he made bold to follow
Sulla to his house, railing at him, and Sulla, who had opposed the greatest
men and states with towering rage, endured his reproaches with calmness and
as he went into the house said, divining the future either by his
intelligence or by chance, This young man will prevent any other holder of
such power from laying it down.
This saying was shortly confirmed to the
Romans, for Gaius Caesar never laid down his power. Sulla seems to
me to have been the same masterful and able man in all respects, whether
striving to reach supreme power from private life, or changing back to
private life from supreme power, or later when passing his time in rural
solitude; for he retired to his own estate at Cumae in Italy and
there occupied his leisure in hunting and fishing. He did this not because
he was afraid to live a private life in the city, nor because he had not
sufficient bodily strength for whatever he might try to do. He was still of
virile age and sound constitution, and there were 120,000 men throughout
Italy who had recently served under him in war and had received large gifts
of money and land from him, and there were the 10,000 Cornelii ready in the
city, besides other people of his party devoted to him and still formidable
to his opponents, all of whom rested upon Sulla’s safety their hopes of
impunity for what they had done in coöperation with him. But I
think that he was satiated with war, with power, with city affairs, and that
he took to rural life finally because he loved it.
Directly after his retirement the Romans, although Some say the
Genius so cries
Come
to him that instantly must
die.
When the remains reached the city they were borne through the streets with an enormous procession. More than 2000 golden crowns which had been made in haste were carried in it, the gifts of cities and of the legions that he had commanded and of individual friends. It would be impossible to describe all the splendid things contributed to this funeral. From fear of the assembled soldiery all the priests and priestesses escorted the remains, each in proper costume. The entire Senate and the whole body of magistrates attended with their insignia of office. A multitude of the Roman knights followed with their peculiar decorations, and, in their turn, all the legions that had fought under him. They came together with eagerness, all hastening to join in the task, carrying gilded standards and silver-plated shields, such as are still used on such occasions. There was a countless number of trumpeters who by turns played the most mournful dirges. Loud cries were raised, first by the Senate, then by the knights, then by the soldiers, and finally by the plebeians. For some really longed for Sulla, but others were afraid of his army and his dead body, as they had been of himself when living. As they looked at the present spectacle and remembered what this man had accomplished they were amazed, and agreed with their opponents that he had been most beneficial to his own party and most formidable to themselves even in death. The corpse was shown in the forum on the rostra, where public speeches were usually made, and the most eloquent of the Romans then living delivered the funeral oration, as Sulla’s son, Faustus, was still very young. Then strong men of the senators took up the litter and carried it to the Campus Martius, where only kings were buried, and the knights and the army coursed around the funeral pile. And this was the last of Sulla.
Directly after their return from the funeral the consuls fell into a wordy quarrel and the citizens began to take sides with them. Lepidus, in order to curry favor with the Italians, said that he would restore the land which Sulla had taken from them. The Senate was afraid of both factions and made them take an oath that they would not carry their differences to the point of war. To Lepidus the province of transalpine Gaul was assigned by lot and he did not come back to the comitia because he would be released in the following year from his oath about making war on the Sullans; for it was considered that the oath was binding only during the term of office. As his designs did not escape observation he was recalled by the Senate, and as he knew why he was recalled he came with his whole army, intending to bring them into the city with him. As he was prevented from doing this, he ordered his men under arms and Catulus did the same on the other side. A battle was fought not far from the Campus Martius. Lepidus was defeated and, soon giving up the struggle, sailed shortly afterward to Sardinia, where he died of a wasting disease. His army was frittered away little by little and dissolved, the greater part of it was conducted by Perpenna to Sertorius in Spain.
There remained of the Sullan troubles the war with Sertorius, which had been
going on for eight years,
Pompey courageously crossed the Alps, not in the face of such difficulties as
Hannibal experienced, but he opened another passage around the sources of
the Rhone and the Eridanus. These issue from the Alpine mountains not far
from each other. One of them runs through transalpine Gaul and empties into
the Tyrrhenian sea; the other from the interior of the Alps to the Adriatic.
The name of the latter has been changed from the Eridanus to the Po.
When spring came they resumed hostilities, Metellus and Pompey coming from
the Pyrenees mountains, where they had wintered, and Sertorius and Perpenna
from Lusitania. They met near the town of Sucro. While the fight was going
on flashes of lightning came unexpectedly from a clear sky, but these
trained soldiers were not in the least dismayed. They continued the fight,
with heavy slaughter on both sides, until Metellus defeated Perpenna and
plundered his camp. On the other hand, Sertorius defeated Pompey, who
received a dangerous wound from a spear in the thigh, and this put an end to
that battle. Sertorius had a white fawn that was tame and allowed to move
about freely. When this fawn was not visible Sertorius considered it a bad
omen. He became low-spirited and abstained from fighting; nor did he mind
the enemy’s scoffing at the fawn. When she made her appearance running
through the woods Sertorius would run to meet her and, as though he were
inspired by her, he would begin to harass the enemy. Not long afterward
Sertorius fought a great battle near Seguntia, lasting from noon till night.
Sertorius fought on horseback and vanquished Pompey, killing nearly 6000 of
his men and losing about half that number himself. Metellus at the same time
destroyed
The following year, which was in the 176th Olympiad,
Sertorius was so exasperated by this that he visited savage and barbarous
punishment upon many of his men and fell into disrepute in consequence. The
soldiers blamed him particularly because wherever he went he surrounded
himself with a body-guard of Celtiberian spearmen instead of Romans,
removing the latter in favor of the former. Nor could they bear to be
reproached with treachery by him while they were serving under an enemy of
the Roman people. That they should be charged with bad faith by Sertorius
while they were acting in bad faith to their country on his account, was the
very thing that vexed them most. Nor did they consider it just that those
who remained with the standards should be condemned because others deserted.
Moreover, the Celtiberians took this occasion to insult them as men under
suspicion. Still they were not altogether alienated from Sertorius since
they derived advantages from his service, for there was no other man of that
period more skilled in the art of war or more successful in it. For this
reason, and on account of the rapidity of his movements, the Celtiberians
gave him the name of Hannibal, whom they considered the boldest and most
crafty general ever known in their country. In this way the army stood
affected toward Sertorius. The forces of Metellus overran many of his towns
and brought the men belonging to them under subjection. While Pompey was
laying siege to Pallantia and underrunning the walls with wooden supports,
Sertorius suddenly appeared on the scene and raised the siege. Pompey
hastily set fire to the timbers and retreated to Metellus. Sertorius rebuilt
the part of the wall which had fallen and then attacked his enemies who were
encamped around the castle of Calagurris and killed 3000 of them. And so
this year went by in Spain.
In the following year the Roman generals plucked there were skirmishes here
and there.
very sparing
and backward in punishing offenders.
(
The soldiers straightway rose in tumult and anger against Perpenna, their hatred of Sertorius being suddenly turned to affection for him, as people generally mollify their anger toward the dead, and when the one who has injured them is no longer before their eyes recall his virtues with tender memory. Reflecting on their present situation they despised Perpenna as though he had been a private individual, for they considered that the bravery of Sertorius had been their only salvation. They were angry with Perpenna, and the barbarians were no less so; most of all were the Lusitanians, of whose services Sertorius had especially availed himself. When the will of Sertorius was opened a bequest to Perpenna was found in it, and thereupon still greater anger and hatred of him entered into the minds of all, since he had committed such an abominable crime, not merely against his ruler and commanding general, but against his friend and benefactor. And they would not have abstained from violence had not Perpenna bestirred himself, making gifts to some and promises to others. Some he terrified with threats and some he killed in order to strike terror into the rest. He came forward and made a speech to the multitude, and released from confinement some whom Sertorius had imprisoned, and dismissed some of the Spanish hostages. Reduced to submission in this way they obeyed him as praetor (for he held the next rank to Sertorius) yet they were not without bitterness toward him even then. As he grew bolder he became very cruel in punishments, and put to death three of the nobility who had fled together from Rome to him, and also his own nephew.
As Metellus had gone to other parts of Spain,— for he considered it no
longer a difficult task for Pompey alone to vanquish Perpenna, — these two
skirmished and made tests of each other for several days, but did not bring
their whole strength into the field. On the tenth day, however, a great
battle was fought between them. They resolved to decide the contest by one
engagement—Pompey because he despised the generalship of Perpenna; Perpenna
because he did not believe that his army would long remain faithful to him,
and he could now engage with nearly his whole strength. Pompey, as might
have been expected, soon got the better of this inferior general and
disaffected army. Perpenna was defeated all along the line and concealed
himself in a thicket, more fearful of his own troops than of the enemy’s. He
was seized by some horsemen and dragged toward Pompey’s headquarters, loaded
with the execrations of his own men, as the murderer of Sertorius, and
crying out that he could give Pompey a great deal of information about the
factions in Rome. This he said either because it was true, or in order to be
brought safe to Pompey’s presence, but the latter sent orders to kill him
before bringing him into his presence, fearing lest the news that Perpenna
wanted to communicate should be the source of new troubles at Rome. Pompey
seems to have behaved very prudently in this matter, and his action added to
his high reputation. So ended the war in Spain with the life of Sertorius. I
think that if he had lived longer the war would not have ended so soon or so
successfully.
At the same time Spartacus, a Thracian by birth, who had once served as a
soldier with the Romans, but had since been a prisoner and sold for a
gladiator, and was in the gladiatorial training-school at Capua, persuaded
about
Rome now sent out the consuls with two legions. One of them overcame Crixus
with 30,000 men near Mount Garganus, two-thirds of whom perished together
with himself. Spartacus endeavored to make his way through the Apennines to
the Alps and the Gallic country, but one of the consuls anticipated him and
hindered his march while the other hung upon his rear. He turned upon them
one after the other and beat them in detail. They retreated in confusion in
different directions. Spartacus sacrificed 300 Roman prisoners to the manes
of Crixus, and marched on Rome with 120,000 foot, having burned all his
useless material, killed all his prisoners, and butchered his pack-animals
in order to expedite his movement. Many deserters offered themselves to him,
but he would not accept them. The consuls again met him in the country of
Picenum. Here was another great battle and then, too, a great defeat for the
Romans. Spartacus changed his intention of marching on Rome. He did not
consider himself ready as yet for that kind of a fight, as his whole force
was not suitably armed, for no city had joined him, but only slaves,
deserters, and riff-raff. However, he occupied the
This war, so formidable to the Romans (although
Spartacus tried to break through and make an incursion into the Samnite
country, but Crassus slew about 6000 of his men in the morning and as many
more towards evening. Only three of the Roman army were killed and seven
wounded, so great was the improvement in their
On account of this vote Crassus tried in every way to come to an engagement with Spartacus so that Pompey might not reap the glory of the war. Spartacus himself, thinking to anticipate Pompey, invited Crassus to come to terms with him. When his proposals were rejected with scorn he resolved to risk a battle, and as his cavalry had arrived he made a dash with his whole army through the lines of the besieging force and pushed on to Brundusium with Crassus in pursuit. When Spartacus learned that Lucullus had just arrived in Brundusium from his victory over Mithridates he despaired of everything and brought his forces, which were even then very numerous, to close quarters with Crassus. The battle was long and bloody, as might have been expected with so many thousands of desperate men. Spartacus was wounded in the thigh with a spear and sank upon his knee, holding his shield in front of him and contending in this way against his assailants until he and the great mass of those with him were surrounded and slain. The remainder of his army was thrown into confusion and butchered in crowds. So great was the slaughter that it was impossible to count them. The Roman loss was about 1000. The body of Spartacus was not found. A large number of his men fled from the battle-field to the mountains and Crassus followed them thither. They divided themselves in four parts, and continued to fight until they all perished except 6000, who were captured and crucified along the whole road from Capua to Rome.
Crassus accomplished his task within six months, whence arose a contention
for honors between himself and Pompey. Crassus did not dismiss his army, for
Pompey did not dismiss his. Both were candidates for the consulship. Crassus
had been praetor as the law of Sulla required. Pompey had been
neither praetor nor quaestor, and was only thirty-four
years old. He promised the tribunes of the people that much of their former
power should be restored.
AFTER the reign of Sulla, and the later operations of
At this time Lucius CatilineGaius Catiline. The Latin version of Candidus
says Lucius.
All these facts, while they were still secret, were communicated to Cicero by Fulvia, a
woman of quality. Her lover, Quintus Curius, one of the conspirators
with Catiline, who had been expelled from the Senate for debauchery,
told his mistress in a vain and boastful way that he would soon be
in a position of great power. He began to promise her seas and mountains,
says
Sallust (
Such were the designs of Lentulus, Cethegus, Statilius, and Cassius, the
chiefs of the conspiracy, and they waited for the appointed time. Meanwhile
ambassadors of the Allobroges, who were in the city making complaint against
their magistrates, were solicited to join the conspiracy of Lentulus in
order to cause an uprising against the Romans in Gaul. Lentulus sent in
company with them, to Catiline, a man of Croton named Vulturcius, who
carried letters without signatures. The Allobroges being in doubt
communicated the matter to Fabius Sanga, the patron of their state—it was
the custom of all the subject states to have patrons at Rome. Sanga
communicated the facts to Cicero, who captured the Allobroges and Vulturcius
on their journey and brought them straightway before the Senate.
When they had so testified the Senate deprived Lentulus of his office. Cicero put each of the conspirators under arrest at the houses of the praetors, and returned directly to take the vote of the Senate concerning them. In the meantime there was a great tumult around the senate-house, the affair being as yet little understood, and those who did understand it being alarmed. The slaves and freedmen of Lentulus and Cethegus, reënforced by numerous artisans, made a circuit by back streets and assaulted the houses of the praetors in order to rescue their masters. When Cicero heard of this he hurried out of the senate-house and stationed the necessary guards and then came back and hastened the taking of the vote. Silanus, the consul-elect, spoke first, as it was the custom among the Romans for the one who was about to assume that office to deliver his opinion first, because, as I think, he would have most to do with the execution of the decrees, and hence would give more careful consideration and circumspection to each. It was the opinion of Silanus that the culprits should suffer the extreme penalty, and many senators agreed with him until it came Nero’s turn to deliver his opinion. Nero judged that it would be best to keep them under guard until Catiline should be beaten in the field and they could obtain the most accurate knowledge of the facts.
Gaius Caesar was not free from the suspicion of complicity with
these men, but Cicero did not venture to bring into the controversy one so
popular with the masses. Caesar proposed that Cicero should
distribute the culprits among the towns of Italy, according to his own
discretion, to be kept until Catiline should be beaten in fight, and that
then they should be regularly tried, instead of inflicting an irremediable
punishment upon members of the nobility in advance of argument and trial. As
this opinion appeared to be just and acceptable, most of the senators
changed completely, until Cato openly manifested his suspicion of
Caesar; and Cicero, who had apprehensions concerning the coming
night (lest the crowd who were concerned with the conspiracy and were still
in the forum in a state of suspense, fearful for themselves and the
conspirators, might do something desperate), persuaded the Senate to give
judgment against them without trial as persons caught in the act. Cicero
immediately, while the Senate was still in session, conducted each of the
conspirators from the houses where they were in custody to the prison,
without the knowledge of the crowd, and saw them put to death. Then he went
back to the forum and signified that they were dead. The crowd dispersed in
alarm, congratulating themselves that they had not been found out. Thus the
city breathed freely once more after the great fear that had weighed upon it
that day.
Catiline had assembled about 20,000 troops, of whom served with great
reputation for more than thirty years as military tribune, prefect,
lieutenant, or praetor.
Moreover it was a desperate and bloody
engagement. (
Caesar, who had been chosen praetor for Spain, was
In the meantime Pompey, who had acquired great glory and power by his Mithridatic war, was asking the Senate to ratify numerous concessions that he had granted to kings, princes, and cities. Many senators, however, moved by envy, made opposition, and especially Lucullus, who had held the command against Mithridates before Pompey, and who considered that the victory was his, since he had left the king in a state of extreme weakness for Pompey. Crassus coöperated with Lucullus in this matter. Pompey was indignant and made friends with Caesar and promised under oath to support him for the consulship. The latter thereupon brought Crassus into friendly relations with Pompey. Thus these three most powerful men coöperated together for their mutual advantage. This coalition the Roman writer Varro treated in a book entitled
Strife sprang up between them immediately and they proceeded to arm
themselves secretly against each other. Caesar, who was a master of
dissimulation, made speeches in the Senate in the interest of harmony with
Bibulus, as though he were taking care lest harm should come to the republic
from their disagreement. As he was believed to be sincere, Bibulus was
thrown off his guard. While Bibulus was unprepared and suspecting nothing,
Caesar secretly got a large band of soldiers in readiness and
brought before the Senate measures for the relief of the poor by the
distribution of the public land to them. The best part of this land around
Capua,Appian and Dion are wrong in affirming that he
ceased to assemble the Senate; for he called them together several
times, among others to make them swear to observe his law and to declare
Ptolemy and Ariovistus friends of the Roman people,
etc.
(
The Senate (since no one called it together and it was not lawful for one
consul to do so without the consent of the other) assembled at the house of
Bibulus, but did nothing to counteract the force and preparation of
Caesar. They planned, however, that Bibulus should oppose
Caesar’s laws, so that they should seem to be overcome by force
rather than by their own negligence. Accordingly, Bibulus burst into the
forum while Caesar was still speaking. Strife and tumult arose,
blows were given, and those who had daggers broke the fasces and insignia of
Bibulus and wounded some of the tribunes who stood around him. Bibulus was
in no wise terrified, but bared his neck to Caesar’s partisans and
loudly called on them to strike. If I cannot persuade Caesar to do
right,
he said, I will affix upon him the guilt and stigma of my death.
His friends, however, led him, against his will, out of the crowd and into
the neighboring temple of Jupiter Stator. Cato was indignant at these
proceedings, and, being a young man, forced his way to the midst of the
crowd and began to make a speech, but was lifted up and dragged out by
Caesar’s partisans. Then he went around secretly by another street
and again mounted the rostra; but as he despaired of making a speech, since
nobody would listen to him, he abused Caesar roundly until he was
ejected by the Caesarians, and Caesar secured the
enactment of his laws.
The plebeians swore to observe these laws forever, and Caesar
directed the Senate to do the same. Many of them, including Cato, refused,
and Caesar proposed and the people enacted the death penalty to the
recusants. Then they became alarmed and took the oath, including the
tribunes,those who were
afraid.
Mendelssohn suggests the addition of the opposite party,
to complete the
sense.
As Caesar now had the sole administration of public affairs, he did not make any further inquiry concerning Vettius. He brought forward new laws to win the favor of the multitude, and caused all of Pompey’s acts to be ratified, as he had promised him. The so-called knights, who held the middle place in rank between the Senate and the plebeians, and were extremely powerful in all ways by reason of their wealth, and of the farming of the provincial revenues which they contracted for, and who kept for this purpose multitudes of very trusty servants, had been asking the Senate for a long time to release them from a part of what they owed to the treasury. The Senate was consuming time on this question. As Caesar did not want anything of the Senate then, but was employing the people only, he released the publicans from a third part of their contracts. For this unexpected favor, which was far beyond their deserts, the knights extolled Caesar to the skies. Thus a more powerful body of defenders than that of the plebeians was added to Caesar’s support through one political act. He gave spectacles and combats of wild beasts beyond his means, borrowing money on all sides, and surpassing all former exhibitions in lavish display and splendid gifts, in consequence of which he was appointed governor of both Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul for five years, with the command of four legions.
As Caesar saw that he would be away from home a long time, and
believed that envy would be in proportion to benefits conferred, he gave his
daughter in marriage to Pompey, although she was betrothed to
Caepio, because he feared that even a friend might become envious
of his great success. He promoted the boldest of his partisans to the
principal offices for the ensuing year. He designated his friend Aulus
Gabinius as consul, with Lucius Piso as his colleague, whose daughter,
Calpurnia, Caesar married, although Cato cried out that the
government was debauched by marriages. For tribunes he chose Vatinius and
Clodius Pulcher, although the latter had been suspected of an amour with the
wife of Caesar himself during a religious ceremony of women,
Such were the acts of Caesar’s consulship. He then
Accordingly, Pompey held out to Milo, who was Clodius’ colleague in office
and a bolder spirit than himself, the hope of the consulship, and incited
him against Clodius, and directed him to procure a vote for the recall of
Cicero. He hoped that when Cicero should come back he would no longer speak
against the existing status (the triumvirate), remembering what he had
suffered, but would make trouble for Clodius and bring punishment upon him.
Thus Cicero, who had been exiled by means of Pompey,
In the meantime Caesar, who had performed the
Accordingly, Pompey and Crassus were chosen consuls
About this time the daughter of Caesar, who was married to Pompey,
died in childbirth, and fear fell upon all lest, with the termination of
this marriage connection, Caesar and Pompey with their great armies
should come into conflict with each other, especially as the commonwealth
had been for a long time disorderly and unmanageable. The magistrates were
chosen by means of money, and faction fights, with dishonest zeal, with the
aid of stones and even swords. Bribery and corruption prevailed in the most
scandalous manner. The people themselves went to the elections to be bought.
A case was found where a deposit of 800 talents had been made to obtain the
Many citizens began to talk to each other about this,
Clodius happened to be coming from his own country-seat on horseback and he met Milo at Bovillae. They merely exchanged hostile scowls and passed along; but one of Milo’s servants attacked Clodius, either because he was ordered to do so or because he wanted to kill his master’s enemy, and stabbed him through the back with a dagger. Clodius’ groom carried him bleeding into a neighboring inn. Milo followed with his servants and finished him, — whether he was still alive, or already dead, is not known, — for, although he claimed that he had neither advised nor ordered the killing, he was not willing to leave the deed unfinished because he knew that he would be accused in any event. When the news of this affair was circulated in Rome, the people were thunderstruck, and they passed the night in the forum. When daylight came, the corpse of Clodius was displayed on the rostra. Some of the tribunes and the friends of Clodius and a great crowd with them seized it and carried it to the senate-house, either to confer honor upon it, as he was of senatorial birth, or as an act of contumely to the Senate for conniving at such deeds. There the more reckless ones collected the benches and chairs of the senators and made a funeral pile for him, which they lighted and from which the senate-house and many buildings in the neighborhood caught fire and were consumed with the corpse of Clodius.
Such was the hardihood of Milo that he was moved less by fear of punishment for the murder than by indignation at the honor bestowed upon Clodius at his funeral. He collected a crowd of slaves and rustics, and, after sending some money to be distributed among the people and buying Marcus Caelius, one of the tribunes, he came back to the city with the greatest boldness. Directly he entered, Caelius dragged him to the forum to be tried by those whom he had bribed, as though by an assembly of the people, pretending to be very indignant and not willing to grant any delay, but hoping that if those present should acquit him he would escape a more regular trial. Milo said that the deed was not premeditated, since one would not set out with such intentions encumbered with his luggage and his wife. The remainder of his speech was directed against Clodius as a desperado and a friend of desperadoes, who had set fire to the senate-house and burned it to ashes with his body. While he was still speaking the other tribunes, with the unbribed portion of the people, burst into the forum armed. Caelius and Milo escaped disguised as slaves, but there was a heavy slaughter of the others. Search was not made for the friends of Milo, but all who were met with, whether citizens or strangers, were killed, and especially those who wore fine clothes and gold rings. As the government was without order these ruffians, who were for the most part slaves and were armed men against unarmed, indulged their rage and, making an excuse of the tumult that had broken out, they turned to pillage. They abstained from no crime, but broke into houses, looking for any kind of portable property, but pretending to be searching for the friends of Milo. For several days Milo was their excuse for burning, stoning, and every sort of outrage.
The Senate assembled in consternation and looked to Pompey, intending to make him dictator at once, for they considered this necessary as a cure for the present evils; but at the suggestion of Cato they appointed him consul without a colleague, so that by ruling alone he might have the power of a dictator with the responsibility of a consul. He was the first of consuls who had two of the greatest provinces, and an army, and the public money, and the one-man power in the city, by virtue of being sole consul. In order that Cato might not cause obstruction by his presence, it was decreed that he should go to Cyprus and take the island away from King Ptolemy—a law to that effect having been enacted by Clodius because once, when he was captured by pirates, the avaricious Ptolemy contributed only two talents for his ransom. When Ptolemy heard of the decree he threw his money into the sea and killed himself, and Cato settled the government of Cyprus. Pompey proposed the prosecution of offenders and especially of those guilty of bribery and corruption. He thought that the seat of the public disorder was there, and that by beginning there he should effect a speedy cure. He brought forward a law, that any citizen who chose to do so might call for an accounting from anybody who had held office from the time of his own first consulship to the present. This embraced a period of a little less than twenty years, during which Caesar also had been consul; wherefore Caesar’s friends suspected that he included so long a time in order to cast reproach and contumely on Caesar, and urged him to straighten out the present crookedness rather than stir up the past to the annoyance of so many distinguished men, among whom they named Caesar. Pompey pretended to be indignant at the mention of Caesar’s name, as though he were above suspicion, and said that his own second consulship was embraced in the period, and that he had reached back a considerable time in order to effect a complete cure of the evils from which the republic had been so long wasting away.
After making this answer he passed his law, and straightway there ensued a great number and variety of prosecutions. In order that the jurors might act without fear Pompey stationed soldiers around them and superintended them in person. The first ones convicted were absentees: Milo for the murder of Clodius; Gabinius both for violation of law and for impiety, because he had invaded Egypt without a decree of the Senate and contrary to the Sibylline books; Hypsaeus, Memmius, Sextius, and many others for bribery and for corrupting the populace. The people interceded for Scaurus, but Pompey made proclamation that they should wait for the decision of the court. When the crowd again interrupted the accusers, Pompey’s soldiers made a charge and killed several. Then the people held their tongues and Scaurus was convicted. All of them were banished. Gabinius was fined in addition. The Senate praised Pompey highly for these proceedings, voted him two more legions, and extended the term of his provincial government. As Pompey’s law offered impunity to any one who should turn state’s evidence, Memmius, who had been convicted of bribery, called Lucius Scipio, the father-in-law of Pompey himself, to trial for like participation in bribery. Thereupon Pompey put on mourning and many of the jurors did the same. Memmius took pity on the republic and withdrew the accusation.
Pompey, as though he had completed the reforms that made the one-man power
necessary, now made Scipio his colleague in the consulship for the remainder
of the year. At the expiration of his term, however, although others were
invested with the consulship, he was none the less the supervisor, and
ruler, and all-in-all in Rome. He enjoyed the good-will of the Senate,
particularly because they were jealous of Caesar, who did not
consult the Senate during his consulship, and because Pompey had so speedily
restored the sick commonwealth, and had not made himself troublesome or
offensive to any of them during his term of office. The banished ones went
to Caesar in crowds and advised him to beware of Pompey, saying
that his law about bribery was especially directed against himself.
Caesar cheered them up and spoke well of Pompey. He also induced
the tribunes to bring in a law to enable himself to stand for the consulship
a second time while absent, and this was enacted while Pompey was still
consul and without opposition from him. Caesar suspected that the
Senate would resist this project and feared lest he should be reduced to the
condition of a private citizen and exposed This shall give it to me.
It is said
that one of Caesar’s centurions, who had been sent by him to
Rome, standing before the senate-house one day, and being told that the
Senate would not give a longer time in his government, clapped his hand
on the hilt of his sword and said,
But this shall give it.
Caesar built the town of Novum ComumTo the
latter,
he continues, Caesar gave the right of citizenship
and inscribed them among the colonists, but they did not live there
permanently, although they gave the name to the settlement. All the
inhabitants are called Neocomitae which, by interpretation,
means the people of Novum Comum.
So it appears that the place was
recruited by Caesar, not originally founded by him.
Curio, in order that he might not be detected changing sides too suddenly, brought forward vast plans for repairing and building roads, of which he was to be superintendent for five years. He knew that he could not carry any such measure, but he hoped that Pompey’s friends would oppose him so that he might have that as an excuse for opposing Pompey. Things turned out as he had anticipated, so that he had a pretext for disagreement. Claudius proposed the sending of successors to take command of Caesar’s provinces, as his term was now expiring. Paulus was silent. Curio, who was thought to differ from both, praised the motion of Claudius, but added that Pompey ought to resign his provinces and army just like Caesar, for in this way he said the commonwealth would be made free and be relieved from fear in all directions. Many opposed this as unjust, because Pompey’s term had not yet expired. Then Curio came out more openly and decidedly against appointing successors to Caesar unless Pompey also should lay down his command; for since they were both suspicious of each other, he contended that there could be no lasting peace to the commonwealth unless both were reduced to the character of private citizens. He said this because he knew that Pompey would not give up his command and because he saw that the people were incensed against Pompey on account of his prosecutions for bribery. As Curio’s position was plausible, the plebeians praised him as the only one who was willing to incur the enmity of both Pompey and Caesar in order to fulfil worthily his duties as a citizen; and once they escorted him home like an athlete, scattering flowers, as though he had won the prize in some great and difficult contest, for nothing was considered more perilous then than to have a difference with Pompey.
Pompey, while lying sick in Italy,sacrificings.
This refers,
says Combes-Dounous, to Caesar’s duties as Pontifex Maximus, a
life office, to which he had been chosen in his younger days.
Pompey was angry with him and threatened him and at once withdrew indignantly to his country-seat. The Senate now had suspicions of both, but it considered Pompey the better republican of the two, and it hated Caesar because he had not shown it proper respect during his consulship. Some of the senators really thought that it would not be safe to the commonwealth to deprive Pompey of his power until after Caesar should lay down his, since the latter was outside of the city and was the man of more towering designs. Curio held the contrary opinion, that they had need of Caesar against the power of Pompey, or otherwise that both armies should be disbanded at the same time. As the Senate would not agree with him he dismissed it, leaving the whole business still unfinished. He had the power to do so as tribune. Thus Pompey had occasion to regret that he had restored the tribunician power to its pristine vigor after it had been reduced to extreme feebleness by Sulla. Nevertheless, one decree was voted before the session was ended, and that was that Caesar and Pompey should each send one legion of soldiers to Syria to defend the province on account of the disaster to Crassus. Pompey artfully recalled. the legion that he had lately lent to Caesar on account of the disaster to Caesar’s two generals, Titurius and Cotta. Caesar awarded to each soldier 250 drachmas and sent the legion to Rome together with another of his own. As the expected danger did not show itself in Syria, these legions were sent into winter quarters at Capua.
The persons who had been sent by Pompey to Caesar to bring these
legions spread many reports derogatory to Caesar and repeated them
to Pompey. They said that Caesar’s army was wasted by protracted
service, that the soldiers longed for their homes and would change to the
side of Pompey as soon as they should cross the Alps. They spoke in this way
either from ignorance or because they were corrupted. In fact, every soldier
was strongly attached to Caesar and labored zealously for him,
under the force of discipline and the influence of the gain which war
usually brings to victors and which they received from Caesar also;
for he gave with ar lavish hand in order to mould them to his designs. They
knew what his designs were, but they stood by him nevertheless. Pompey
believed what was reported to him and collected neither soldiers nor
apparatus suitable for so great a contest.when some were
saying that if Caesar should turn his forces against the city,
they could not see what power would be able to resist him, Pompey
smiled, and with great unconcern bade them take no care of that,
(for,
he said, whenever I stamp upon the ground in any part of Italy there
will rise up forces enough both horse and foot.
Shall successors be sent to Caesar?
and again,
Shall Pompey be deprived of his command?
The majority voted against the
latter proposition, and it was decreed that successors to Caesar
should be sent. Then Curio put the question whether both should lay down
their commands, and 22 senators voted in the negative while 370 went back to
the opinion of Curio in order to avoid civil discord.Enjoy your victory and have Caesar for a
master.
Suddenly a false rumor came that Caesar had crossed the Alps and was
marching on the city, whereupon there was a great tumult and consternation
on all sides. Claudius moved that the army at Capua be turned against
Caesar as a public enemy. When Curio opposed him on the ground that
the rumor was false he exclaimed, If I am prevented by the vote of the
Senate from taking steps for the public safety, I will take such steps on my
own responsibility as consul.
After saying this he darted out of the Senate
and proceeded to the suburbs with his colleague, where he presented a sword
to Pompey, and said, I and my colleague command you to march against
Caesar in behalf of your country, and we give you for this purpose
the army now at Capua, or in any other part of Italy, and whatever
additional forces you yourself choose to levy.
Pompey promised to obey the
orders of the consuls, but he added, unless we can do better,
thus dealing
in trickery and still making a pretence of fairness. Curio had no power
outside of the city (for it was not permitted to the tribunes to go beyond
the walls), but he publicly deplored the state of affairs and demanded that
the consuls should make proclamation that nobody need obey the conscription
ordered by Pompey. As he could accomplish nothing, and as his term of office
as tribune was about expiring, and he feared for his safety and despaired of
being able to render any further assistance to Caesar, he hastily
departed to join the latter.
Caesar had lately recrossed the straits from Britain and, after
traversing the Gallic country along the Rhine, had passed the Alps with 5000
foot and 300 horse and arrived at Ravenna, which was contiguous to Italy and
the last town in his government. After embracing Curio and returning thanks
for what he had done for him, he looked over the present situation. Curio
advised him to bring his whole army together now and lead it to Rome, but
Caesar thought it best still to try and come to terms. So he
directed his friends to make an agreement in his behalf, that he should
deliver up all his provinces and soldiers, except that he should retain two
legions and Illyria with Cisalpine Gaul until he should be chosen consul.
This was satisfactory to Pompey, but the consuls refused. Caesar
then wrote a letter to the Senate, which Curio carried a distance of 1300 stadesOn the day of the new moon of the year.
Since Antony and Cassius, who succeeded Curio as tribunes, agreed with the
latter in opinion, the Senate became more bitter than ever and declared
Pompey’s army the protector of Rome, and that of Caesar a public
enemy. The consuls, Marcellus and Lentulus, ordered Antony and his friends
out of the Senate lest they should suffer some harm, although they were
tribunes. Then Antony sprang from his chair in anger and with a loud voice
called gods and men to witness the indignity put upon the sacred and
inviolable office of tribune, saying that while they (the tribunes) were
expressing the opinion which they deemed conducive to the public interest,
they were driven out with contumely though they had wrought no murder or
other outrage. Having spoken thus he rushed out like one possessed,
predicting war, slaughter, proscription, banishment, confiscation, and
various other impending evils, and invoking direful curses on the authors of
them. Curio and Cassius rushed out with him, for a detachment of Pompey’s
army was already observed standing around the senate-house. The tribunes
made their way to Caesar the next night with the utmost speed,
concealing themselves in a hired carriage, and disguised as slaves.
Caesar showed them in this condition to his army, whom he excited
by saying that his soldiers, after all their great deeds, had been
stigmatized as public enemies and that distinguished men like these, who had
dared to speak out for them, had been thus driven with ignominy from the
city.
The war had now been begun on both sides and already openly declared. The Senate, thinking that Caesar’s army would be slow in arriving from Gaul and that he would not rush into so great an adventure with a small force, directed Pompey to assemble 130,000 Italian soldiers, chiefly veterans who had had experience in war, and to recruit as many able-bodied men as possible from the neighboring provinces. They voted him for the war all the money in the public treasury at once, and their own private fortunes in addition if they should be needed for the pay of the soldiers. With the fury of party rage they levied additional contributions on the allied cities, which they collected with the greatest possible haste. Caesar had sent messengers to bring his own army, but as he was accustomed to rely upon the terror caused by the celerity and audacity of his movements, rather than on the magnitude of his preparations, he decided to take the aggressive in this great war with his 5000 men and to anticipate the enemy by seizing the advantageous positions in Italy.
Accordingly, he sent forward some centurions with a few of his bravest troops
in peaceful garb to go inside the walls of Ariminum and take it by surprise.
This was the first town in Italy after leaving Cisalpine Gaul. Toward
evening Caesar himself rose from a banquet on a plea of
indisposition, leaving some friends who were still feasting. He mounted his
chariot and drove toward Ariminum, his cavalry following at a short
distance. When his course brought him to the river Rubicon, which forms the
boundary line of Italy, he stopped and, while gazing at the stream, revolved
in his mind the evils that might result from his crossing it with arms.
Recovering himself he said to those who were present, My friends, stopping
here will be the beginning of sorrows for me; crossing over will be such for
all mankind.
Thereupon, he crossed with a rush like one inspired, uttering
the common phrase, Let the die be cast.
The Rubicon,
says Duruy, is probably the Fiumicino di
Savignano, a reddish torrent twelve miles north of Ariminum, formed by
the confluence of three brooks from the Apennines.
Duruy doubts the
whole story of Caesar’s hesitation at the Rubicon, but Plutarch
(
When the consuls learned the facts they did not allow Pompey to act according
to his own judgment, experienced as he was in military affairs, but urged
him to traverse Italy and raise troops, as though the city were on the point
of being captured. The Senate also was alarmed at Caesar’s
unexpectedly swift advance, for which it was still unprepared, and in its
panic repented that it had not accepted Caesar’s proposals, which
it considered just at last, after fear had turned it from party rage to the
counsels of prudence. Many portents and signs in the sky took place. It
rained blood. Sweat issued from the statues of the gods. Lightning struck
several temples. A mule gave birth to a colt.
As the consuls opposed all accommodation Favonius, in ridicule of Pompey for
something he had said a little before, advised him to stamp on the ground
with his foot and raise armies in that way. You can have them,
replied
Pompey, if you will follow me and not consider it such a terrible thing to
leave Rome, and Italy also if need be. Places and houses are not strength
and freedom to men; but men, wherever they may be, have these qualities
within themselves, and by defending themselves shall recover their homes.
After saying this and after threatening those who should remain behind and
desert their country’s cause in order to save their fields and their goods,
he left the Senate and the city immediately to take command of the army at
Capua, and the consuls followed him. The other senators remained undecided a
long time and passed the night together in the senate-house. At daybreak,
however, most of them departed and hastened after Pompey.
At Corfinium Caesar came up with and besieged Lucius Domitius, who
had been sent to be his successor in the command of Gaul but who did not
have all of his 4000 men with him. The inhabitants of Corfinium captured him
at the gates, as he was trying to escape, and brought him to
Caesar.If we may
believe Lucan,
says Combes-Dounous, the soldiers of Domitius
themselves delivered him to Caesar:
Ecce nefas belli, reseratis agmina portis Captivum traxere
ducem.
The consuls crossed safely to Dyrrachium,The Ionian and the Adriatic have a common mouth, but
there is this difference, that the first part of this sea was called the
Ionian, and the interior portion, as far as the northern extremity, the
Adriatic, but now the whole is called by the latter name. Theopompus
says that the former of these names was derived from a man who ruled
this region and was a native of Issa, and that the latter was derived
from the river Adria.
This river is the modern Tartaro.
A portion of Pompey’s forces had crossed to Dyrrachium with the consuls.
Pompey led the remainder to Brundusium, where he awaited the return of the
ships that had carried the others over. Here Caesar advanced
against him, and he defended himself by walls and dug trenches in the
cityPompey, either alarmed at Caesar’s works, or because he
had decided from the beginning to leave Italy, began to prepare for his
departure as soon as his ships should return, and in order the more
effectually to delay Caesar’s onset, lest the soldiers should
break in while he was on the point of embarking, he blocked up the
gates, built walls in the streets and avenues, dug ditches across the
ways and drove sharpened stakes and branches of trees in them.
(The master of Italy has sent me on this business.
Cato answered
that in order to spare the lives of those under his command he would not
make resistance there. He then sailed away to Corcyra and from Corcyra to
Pompey.
Caesar hastened to Rome. He found the people shuddering with
recollection of the horrors of Marius and Sulla and he cheered them with the
prospect and promise of clemency. In proof of his kindness to his enemies,
he said that he had taken Lucius Domitius prisoner and allowed him to go
away unharmed with his money. Nevertheless, he broke the bolts of the public
treasury, and when Metellus, one of the tribunes, tried to prevent him from
entering, threatened him with death. He took away money hitherto untouched,
which, they say, had been deposited there long ago, at the time of the
Gallic invasion, with a public curse upon anybody who should take it out
except in case of a war with the Gauls. Caesar said that he had
subjugated the Gauls completely and thus released the commonwealth from the
curse. He then placed Aemilius Lepidus in charge of the city, and
the tribune, Mark Antony, in charge of Italy and of the army guarding it.
Outside of Italy he chose Curio to take command of Sicily in place of
Cato,
Having prevailed so far as to make Italy inaccessible to Pompey,
Caesar went to Spain, where he encountered Petreius and Afranius,
Pompey’s lieutenants, and was worsted by them at first and afterward had an
indecisive engagement with them near the town of Ilerda.
To Afranius and some of the other officers it now seemed best to abandon
Spain to Caesar, provided they could go unharmed to Pompey.
Petreius opposed this and ran through the camp killing those of
Caesar’s men whom he found holding communication with his own. He
even slew with his own hand one of his officers who tried to restrain him.
Moved by these acts of severity on the part of Petreius, the minds of the
soldiers were still more attracted to the clemency of Caesar. Soon
afterward Caesar managed to cut off the enemy’s access to water,
and Petreius was compelled by necessity to come with Afranius to a
conference with Caesar between the two armies. Here it was agreed
that they should abandon Spain to Caesar, and that he should
conduct them unharmed to the other side of the river VarusMy enemies (for by still using this term I
shall make my meaning clearer to you), I did not destroy those of you who
surrendered to me when you had been sent to seize my camp, nor the rest of
your army when I had cut you off from water, although Petreius had
previously slaughtered those of my men who were intercepted on the other
side of the river Sicoris. If there is any gratitude among you for these
favors tell them to all of Pompey’s soldiers.
After speaking thus he
dismissed them uninjured, and he appointed Quintus Cassius governor of
Spain. So much for the operations of Caesar.
Attius Varus commanded the Pompeian forces in Africa, and Juba, king of the
Mauritanian Numidians, was in alliance with him. Curio sailed from Sicily
against them in behalf of Caesar with two legions, twelve war
vessels, and a number of ships of burden. He landed at Utica and put to
flight a body of Numidian horse in a small cavalry engagement near that
place, and allowed himself to be saluted as Imperator by the soldiers with
their arms still in their hands. This title is an honor conferred upon
generals by their soldiers, who thus testify that they consider them worthy
to be their commanders. In the olden time the generals accepted this honor
only for the greatest exploits. At present I understand that the distinction
is limited to cases where at least 10,000 of the enemy have been killed.
While Curio was crossing from Sicily the inhabitants of Africa thinking
that, in emulation of the glory of Scipio, he would establish his quarters
near the camp of the latter, poisoned the water in the neighborhood. Their
expectation was fulfilled. Curio encamped there and his army immediately
fell sick. When they drank the water their eyesight became dim as in a mist,
and sleep with torpor ensued, and after that frequent vomiting and spasms of
the whole body. For this reason Curio changed his camp to the neighborhood
of Utica itself, leading his enfeebled army through an extensive marshy
region. But when they received the news of Caesar’s victory in
Spain they took courage and put themselves in order of battle in a narrow
space along the seashore. Here a severe battle was fought in which Curio
lost only one man, while Varus lost 600 killed, besides a still larger
number wounded.
Meantime, while Juba was advancing a false report preceded him, that he had turned back at the river Bagradas, which was not far distant, because his kingdom had been invaded by his neighbors, and that he had left Saburra, his general, with a small force at the river. Curio believed this report and about the third hour of a hot summer day led the greater part of his army against Saburra by a sandy road destitute of water; for even if there were any streams there in winter they were now dried up by the heat of the sun. He found the river in possession of Saburra and of the king himself. Disappointed in his expectation Curio retreated to some hills, oppressed by fatigue, heat, and thirst. When the enemy beheld him in this condition they crossed the river prepared for fight. Curio despised the danger and very imprudently led his enfeebled army down to the plain, where he was surrounded by the Numidian horse. Here for some time he sustained the attack by retiring slowly and drawing his men together into a small space, but being much distressed he retreated again to the hills. Asinius Pollio, at the beginning of the trouble, had retreated with a small force to the camp at Utica lest Varus should make an attack upon it as soon as he should hear the news of the disaster at the river. Curio perished fighting bravely, together with all his men, not one returning to Utica after Pollio. Such was the result of the battle at the river Bagradas. Curio’s head was cut off and carried to Juba.
As soon as the news of this disaster reached the camp at Utica, Flamma, the admiral, fled, fleet and all, not taking a single one of the land forces on board, but Pollio rowed out in a small boat to the merchant ships that were lying at anchor near by and besought them to come to the shore and take the army on board. Some of them did so by night. The soldiers came aboard in such crowds that some of the small boats were sunk. Of those who were carried out to sea, and who had money with them, many were thrown overboard by the merchants for the sake of the money. So much for those who put to sea, but similar calamities, while it was still night, befell those who remained on shore. At daybreak they surrendered themselves to Varus, but Juba came up and, having collected them under the walls, put them all to the sword, claiming that they were the remainder of his victory, and paying no attention to the remonstrances of even Varus. Thus the two Roman legions that sailed to Africa with Curio were totally destroyed, together with the cavalry, the light-armed troops, and the servants belonging to the army. Juba, after vaunting his great exploit to Pompey, returned home.
About this time [Gaius] Antonius was defeated in Illyria by Pompey’s
lieutenant, Octavius, and another army of Caesar mutinied at
Placentia, crying out against their officers for prolonging the war and not
paying them the five minaeYou know what kind of speed I use in
everything I undertake. This war is not prolonged by us, but by the enemy,
who have fled from us. You reaped great advantages from my command in Gaul,
and you took an oath to me for the whole of this war and not for a part
only; and now you abandon us in the midst of our labors, you revolt against
your officers, you propose to give orders to those from whom you are bound
to receive orders. Being myself the witness of my liberality to you
heretofore I shall now execute the law of our country
Straightway a cry went up from the whole legion, and the officers threw themselves at Caesar’s feet in supplication.
Caesar yielded little by little and so far remitted the punishment
as to designate 120 only (who seemed to have been the leaders of the
revolt), and chose twelve of these by lot to be put to death. One of the
twelve proved that he was absent when the conspiracy was formed, and
Caesar put to death in his stead the centurion who had accused him. The Greek text in several old MSS. at this place
reads
(
After thus quelling the mutiny at Placentia Caesar proceeded to
Rome, where the trembling people chose him dictator without any decree of
the Senate and without the intervention of a magistrate. But he, either
deprecating the office as likely to prove invidious or not desiring it,
after holding it only eleven days (as some say) designated himself and
Publius Isauricus as consuls.Since credit was at a low ebb in
the whole of Italy and debts could not be paid in money, Caesar
decided that arbiters should be appointed to appraise the property and
possessions of the debtors at their value before the war and hand them
over to the creditors.
(
In the meantime Pompey was using all diligence to build ships and collect additional forces of men and money. He captured forty of Caesar’s ships in the Adriatic and guarded against his crossing. He disciplined his army and took part in the exercises of both infantry and cavalry, and was foremost in everything, notwithstanding his age. In this way he readily gained the good-will of his soldiers; and the people flocked to see Pompey’s military drills as to a spectacle. Caesar at that time had ten legions of infantry and 10,000 Gallic horse. Pompey had five legions from Italy, with which he had crossed the Adriatic, and the cavalry belonging to them; also the two surviving legions that had served with Crassus in the Parthian war and a certain part of those who had made the incursion into Egypt with Gabinius, making altogether eleven legions of Italian troops and about 7000 horse. He had auxiliaries also from Ionia, Macedonia, Peloponnesus, and Bœotia, Cretan archers, Thracian slingers, and Pontic javelin-throwers. He had also some Gallic horse and others from Galatia in the east, together with Commageneans sent by Antiochus, Cilicians, Cappadocians, some from Lesser Armenia, also Pamphylians and Pisidians. Pompey did not intend to use all these for fighting. Some were employed in garrison duty, in building fortifications, and in other service for the Italian soldiers, so that none of the latter should be kept away from the battles. Such were Pompey’s land forces. He had 600 war-ships perfectly equipped, of which about 100 were manned by Romans and were understood to be much superior to the rest. He also had a great number of transports and ships of burthen. There were numerous naval commanders for the different divisions, and Marcus Bibulus had the chief command over all.
When all was in readiness Pompey called the senators, the knights, and the
whole army to an assembly and addressed them as follows: Fellow-soldiers,
the Athenians, too, abandoned their city for the sake of liberty when they
were fighting against invasion, because they believed that it was not houses
that made a city, but men; and after they had done so they presently
recovered it and made it more renowned than even before. So, too, our own
ancestors abandoned the city when the Gauls invaded it, and Camillus hasted
from Ardea and recovered it. All men of sound mind think that their country
is wherever they can preserve their liberty. Because we were thus minded we
sailed hither, not as deserters of our native land, but in order to prepare
ourselves to defend it gloriously against one who has long conspired against
it, and, by means of bribe-takers, has at last seized Italy by a sudden
invasion, and whom you have decreed a public enemy. He now sends governors
to take charge of your provinces. He appoints others over the city and still
others throughout Italy. With such audacity has he deprived the people of
their own government. If he does these things while the war is still raging
and while he is apprehensive of the result and when we intend, with a god’s
help, to bring him to punishment, what cruelty, what violence is he likely
to abstain from if he wins the victory? And while he is doing these things
against the fatherland certain men, who have been bought with money that he
obtained from our province of Gaul, coöperate with him, choosing to
be his slaves instead of his equals.
I have not failed and I never will fail to fight with you and for you. I
give you my services both as soldier and as general. If I have had any
experience in war, if it has been my good fortune to remain unvanquished to
this day, I pray the gods to continue all these blessings in our present
need and that I may become a man of destiny for my country in her perils as
I was in extending her dominion. Surely we may trust in the gods and in the
righteousness of the war, which has for its noble and just object the
defence of our country’s constitution. In addition to this we may rely upon
the magnitude of the preparations which we behold on land and sea, which are
all the time growing and will be augmented still more as soon as we come
into action. We may say that all the nations of the East and around the
Euxine Sea, both Greek and barbarian, stand with us, and the kings, who are
friends of the Roman people or of myself, are supplying us soldiers, arms,
provisions, and other implements of war. Come to your task then with a
spirit worthy of your country, of yourselves, and of me, mindful of the
wrongs you have received from Caesar, and ready to obey my orders
promptly.
When Pompey had thus spoken the whole army, including the senators and a great many of the nobility who were with him, applauded him vociferously and told him to lead them wherever he would. Pompey thought that as the weather was bad and the sea boisterous Caesar would not attempt to cross till the end of winter, but would be occupied in the meantime with his duties as consul. So he ordered his naval officers to keep watch of the sea, and then divided his army and sent it into winter quarters in Thessaly and Macedonia. So heedlessly did Pompey form his judgment of what was about to take place. Caesar, as I have already said, hastened to Brundusium about the winter solstice, intending to strike terror into his enemies by taking them by surprise. Although he found neither provisions, nor apparatus, nor his whole army collected at Brundusium, he, nevertheless, called those who were present to an assembly and addressed them as follows:—
Fellow-soldiers,—you who are joined with me in the greatest of
undertakings,—neither the winter weather, nor the delay of our comrades,
nor the want of suitable preparation shall check my onset. I consider
rapidity of movement the best substitute for all these things. I think that
we who are first at the rendezvous should leave behind us here our servants,
our pack-animals, and all our apparatus in order that the ships which are
here may take us on board and carry us over at once without the enemy’s
knowledge. Let us oppose our good fortune to the winter weather, our courage
to the smallness of our numbers, and to our want of supplies the abundance
of the enemy, which will be ours to take as soon as we touch the land, if we
realize that nothing is ours unless we conquer. Let us go then and possess
ourselves of their servants, their apparatus, their provisions, while they
are spending the winter under cover. Let us go while Pompey thinks that I am
spending my time in winter quarters also, or in processions and sacrifices
appertaining to my consulship. It is needless to tell you that the most
potent thing in war is the unexpected. It will be glorious for us to carry
off the first honors of the coming conflict and to prepare a safe pathway
yonder for those who will immediately follow us. For my part I would rather
now be sailing than talking, so that I may come in Pompey’s sight while he
thinks me engaged in my official duties at Rome. Although I am certain that
you agree with me I await your response.
When Caesar arrived at Brundusium he addressed
his soldiers saying that since they were almost at the end of their
labors and perils they should be content to leave their slaves and
impedimenta in Italy and embark themselves in the ships in light order so that a greater number of troops could be transported, and that they might expect everything from victory and his liberality.
(iii. 6.)
The whole army cried out with enthusiasm that he should lead on.
Caesar at once led, from the platform to the seashore, five legions
of foot-soldiers and 600 chosen horse, but as a storm came up he was obliged
to cast anchor. It was now the winter solstice and the wind kept him back,
against his will, and held him in Brundusium, to his great disappointment,
until the first day of the new Of what use to me is life or citizenship if I shall
seem to owe them to the benefaction of Caesar, a belief which
will never be erased if it is supposed that I am thus brought back to
Italy from which I departed.
(iii. 10-18.)
Caesar assembled his army and congratulated them on the success they
had achieved by their rapid movement in mid-winter, on conquering such a sea
without war-ships, on taking Oricum and Apollonia without a fight, and on
capturing the enemy’s supplies, as he had predicted, without Pompey’s
knowledge. If we can anticipate him in reaching Dyrrachium, his military
arsenal,
he added, we shall be in possession of all the things they have
collected by the labors of a whole summer.
After speaking thus he led his
soldiers directly toward Dyrrachium over a long road, not stopping day or
night. Pompey, being advised beforehand, marched toward the same place from
Macedonia
In the midst of such vicissitudes on either side Pompey arrived first at
Dyrrachium and encamped near it. He sent a fleet and retook Oricum and kept
the strictest watch on the sea. Caesar pitched his camp so that the
river Alor
Then he rose from supper pretending to be fatigued and told his friends to
remain at the table. He put on the clothing of a private person, stepped
into a chariot, and drove away to the ship, pretending to be the one sent by
Caesar. He gave the rest of his orders through his servants and
remained concealed by the darkness of the night and unrecognized. As there
was a severe wind blowing the servants told the pilot to be of good courage
and seize this opportunity to avoid the enemy who were in the neighborhood.
The pilot made his way down the river by rowing. When they came toward the
mouth they found it broken into surf by the wind and the sea. The pilot at
the instigation of the servants put forth all his efforts, but as he could
make no progress he became fatigued and gave it up. Then Caesar
threw off his disguise and called out to him, Brave the tempest with a
stout heart, you carry Caesar and Caesar’s fortunes.
Both
the rowers and the pilot were astounded and all took fresh courage and
gained the mouth of the river, but the wind and waves cast the ship high on
the bank. As the dawn was near and they feared lest the enemy should
discover them in the daylight, Caesar, after accusing his evil
genius for its invidiousness, allowed the ship to return, and it sailed up
the river with a strong wind.
Some of Caesar’s friends were astonished at this act of bravery;
others blamed him, saying that it was a deed becoming a soldier but not a
general. As Caesar saw that he could not conceal a second attempt
he ordered Postumius to sail to Brundusium in his place and tell Gabinius to
cross over with the army immediately, and if he did not obey, to give the
same order to Antony, and if he failed then to give it to Calenus. Another
letter was written to the whole army in case all three should hesitate,
saying, that every one who was willing to do so should follow Postumius on
shipboard and sail to any place where the wind might carry them, and not to
mind what happened to the ships, because Caesar did not want ships
but men.
Thus did Caesar put his trust in fortune rather than in
prudence.As these things made
Caesar anxious he wrote more imperatively to his forces at
Brundusium that they should not omit the opportunity of the first
favorable wind for sailing, and that they should direct their course
either to the shore of Apollonia, or to that of the Labeates, because
there they might beach their ships. These places were not frequented by
the enemy’s blockading fleet because they dared not venture very far
from their harbors.
(iii. 25.)
When Postumius arrived at Brundusium Gabinius did not obey the order, but led
those who were willing to go with him by way of Illyria by forced marches.
Almost all of them were destroyed by the Illyrians and Caesar was
obliged to endure the outrage on account of his preoccupation. Antony
embarked the remainder of the army and sailed for Apollonia with a favorable
wind. About noon the wind failed and twenty of Pompey’s ships, that had put
out to search the sea, discovered and pursued them. There was great fear on
Caesar’s vessels lest in this calm the warships of the enemy should
ram them with their prows and sink them. They prepared themselves for battle
and began to discharge stones and darts, when suddenly the wind sprang up
stronger than before, filled their great sails unexpectedly, and enabled
them to complete their voyage without fear. The pursuers were left behind
and they suffered severely from the wind and waves in the narrow sea and
were scattered along a harborless and rocky coast. With difficulty they
captured two of Caesar’s ships that ran on a shoal. Antony brought
the remainder to the port of Nymphaeum.
Now Caesar had his whole army together and so had Pompey his. They
encamped opposite each other on hills in numerous redoubts. There were
frequent collisions around each of these redoubts while they were making
lines of circumvallation and trying to cut off each other’s supplies. In one
of these fights in front of a redoubt Caesar’s men were worsted,
and a centurion, of the name of Scaeva, while performing many deeds
of valor, was wounded in the eye with a dart. He advanced in front of his
men beckoning with his hand as though he wished to say something. When
silence was obtained he called out to one of Pompey’s centurions, who was
likewise distinguished for bravery, Save one of your equals, save your
friend, send somebody to lead me by the hand, for I am wounded.
Two
soldiers advanced to him thinking that he was a deserter. One of these he
killed before the stratagem was discovered and he cut off the shoulder of
the other. This he did because he despaired of saving himself and his
redoubt. His men, moved by shame at this act of self-devotion, rushed
forward and saved the redoubt. Minucius, the commander of the post, also
suffered severely. It is said that he received 120 missiles on his shield,
was wounded six times, and, like Scaeva, lost an eye.Caesar, having attempted to corrupt the
defenders, advanced by night to Dyrrachium itself by a narrow passage
between a marsh and the sea, expecting that it would be betrayed. There
he was attacked by a large force in front and by another in the rear.
The latter were conveyed in ships and fell upon him unexpectedly. He
lost many of his men and narrowly escaped himself.
As Caesar could obtain no supplies by sea, on account of Pompey’s
naval superiority, his army began to suffer from hunger and was compelled to
make bread from herbs.Those who were away from the
fortifications,
says the latter, found a kind of root which is called
(iii. 48.)chara,
which, mixed with milk, greatly relieved their want of food.
They fashioned it into the similitude of bread, and they had abundance
of it.What kind of wild beasts are we fighting with?
Then Caesar, compelled by necessity, drew his whole army together
in order to force Pompey to fight even against his will. The latter occupied
a number of the redoubts that Caesar had vacated and remained
quiet. Caesar was greatly vexed at this and ventured upon an
extremely difficult and chimerical task; that is, to carry a line of
circumvallation around the whole of Pompey’s positions from sea to sea,
thinking that even if he should fail he would acquire great renown from the
boldness of the enterprise.
While this remarkable defeat was in progress Caesar brought up other
troops from another quarter, but these also fell into a panic even when they
beheld Pompey still far distant. Although they were already close to the
gates they would neither make a stand, nor enter in good order, nor obey the
commands given to them, but all fled pell-mell without shame, without
orders, without reason. Caesar ran among them and with reproaches
showed them that Pompey was still far distant, yet under his very eye some
threw down their standards and fled, while others bent their gaze upon the
ground in shame and did nothing; so great consternation had befallen them.
One of the standard bearers, with his standard reversed, dared to thrust the
end of it at Caesar himself, but the attendants of the latter cut
him down. When the soldiers entered the camp they did not station any
guards. All precautions were neglected and the fortification was left
unprotected, so that it is probable that Pompey might then have captured it
and brought the war to an end by that one engagement had not Labienus,
misled by a god, persuaded him to pursue the fugitives instead. Moreover
Pompey himself hesitated, either because he suspected a stratagem when he
saw the gates unguarded or because he considered the war already decided by
this battle. So he turned against those outside of the camp and made a heavy
slaughter and took twenty-eight standards in the two engagements of this
day, but he here missed his second opportunity to give the finishing stroke
to the war. It is reported that Caesar said, The war would have
been ended to-day in the enemy’s favor if they had had a commander who knew
how to make use of a victory.
Pompey sent letters to all the kings and cities magnifying his victory, and
he expected that Caesar’s army would come over to him directly,
conceiving that it was oppressed by hunger and cast down by defeat, and
especially the officers because apprehensive of punishment for their bad
conduct in the battle. But the latter, as though some god had brought them
to repentance, were ashamed of their fault, and as Caesar chided
them gently and granted them pardon, they became still more angry with
themselves and by a surprising change demanded that they should be decimated
according to the law of their country. When Caesar did not agree to
this they were still more mortified, and acknowledged that he had been
shamefully treated by them. They cried out that he should at least put the
standard bearers to death because they themselves would never have run away
unless the standards had turned in flight first. Caesar would not
consent to this, but he reluctantly punished a few. So great was the zeal
excited among all by his moderation that they demanded to be led against the
enemy immediately. They urged him vehemently, beseeching and promising to
wipe out their disgrace by a splendid victory. Of their own accord they
visited each other in military order and took an oath by companies, under
the eye of Caesar himself, that they would not leave the field of
battle except as victors.But whether their own panic,
he continued, or some
mistake, or Fortune itself had snatched from them a victory already
gained and assured, the utmost effort should be made so that the
disaster incurred might be repaired by their bravery. If this were done
the loss they had suffered would redound to their advantage, as had been
the case at Gergovia (in Gaul), and those who had been timid in fighting
before would now go into battle fearlessly.
(iii. 73.)
Wherefore Caesar’s friends urged him to avail himself of the army’s
repentance and eagerness promptly, but he said in the hearing of the host,
that he would take a better opportunity to lead them against the enemy, and
he exhorted them to be mindful of their present zeal. He privately
admonished his friends that it was necessary first for the soldiers to
recover from the very great alarm of their recent defeat, and for the enemy
to lose something of their present high confidence. He confessed also that
he had made a mistake in encamping before Dyrrachium where Pompey had
abundance of supplies, whereas he ought to have drawn him to some place
where he would be subject to the same scarcity as themselves. After saying
this he marched directly to Apollonia and from there to Thessaly, advancing
by night in order to conceal his movements. The small town of Gomphioppido pleno atque opulento.
After Caesar had withdrawn Pompey called a council of war, at which
Afranius advised that they should make use of their naval force in which
they were much superior, and being masters of the sea should harass
Caesar, who was now wandering and destitute, and that Pompey
himself should conduct his infantry with all haste to Italy, which was well
disposed toward him and was now free from a hostile army. Having mastered
it, together with Gaul and Spain, they could attack Caesar again
from their own home, the seat of imperial power. Although this was the best
possible advice Pompey disregarded it and allowed himself to be persuaded by
those who said that Caesar’s army would presently desert to him on
account of hunger, and that there was not much left of it anyway after the
victory of Dyrrachium. They said it would be disgraceful to abandon the
pursuit of Caesar when he was in flight, and for the victor to flee
as though vanquished.They cried
out,
says the former, that Caesar had fled. Some wanted to
pursue him, others to cross over to Italy. Others despatched their
friends and servants to Rome to hire houses in advance near the forum,
as though they were about to run for office.
(They
contended with each other openly about rewards and priesthoods and
disposed of the consulship for years to come. Some demanded the houses
and goods of men in Caesar’s camp, and there was a great
controversy over the question whether Lucius Hirrus, who had been sent
by Pompey on a mission to the Parthians, should have the right to stand
for the next praetorship while absent. . . . Domitius, Scipio,
and Lentulus Spinther had daily disputes over the succession to
Caesar’s priesthood and descended to the vilest language,
Lentulus claiming it on the score of age, Domitius boasting of his
influence in the city and his dignity, while Scipio trusted to his
relationship with Pompey. Acutius Rufus even accused Afranius, in
Pompey’s presence, of betrayal of his army, which he said had been done
in Spain.
(iii. 82-83.)
Pompey’s supplies came from every quarter, for the roads, harbors, and
strongholds had been so provided beforehand that food was brought to him at
all times from the land, and every wind blew it to him from the sea.
Caesar, on the other hand, had only what he could find with
difficulty and seize by hard labor. Yet even so nobody deserted him, but
all, by a kind of divine fury, longed to come to close quarters with the
enemy. They considered that they, who had been trained in arms for ten
years, were much superior to the new levies of Pompey in fighting, but that
for digging ditches and building fortifications and for laborious foraging
they were weaker by reason of their age. Tired as they were they altogether
preferred to perform some deed of valor rather than perish with hunger in
inaction. Pompey perceived this and he considered it dangerous to risk
everything on a single battle with disciplined and desperate men, and
against the amazing luck of Caesar. It would be easier and safer to
reduce them by want as they controlled no fertile territory, and could get
nothing by sea, and had no ships for rapid flight. So he decided on the most
prudent calculation to protract the war and wear out the enemy by hunger
from day to day.to
lead the enemy around from hunger to hunger,
from famine to
plague,
and he refers to Plutarch (from
hunger to hunger.
Pompey was surrounded by a great number of senators, of equal rank with
himself, by very distinguished knights, and by many kings and princes. Some
of these, by reason of their inexperience in war, others because they were
too much elated by the victory at Dyrrachium, others because they
outnumbered the enemy, and others because they were quite tired of the war
and preferred a quick decision rather than a sound one — all urged him to
fight, pointing out to him that Caesar was always drawn up for
battle and challenging him. Pompey answered along this very line of argument
by saying that Caesar was compelled to do so by his want of
supplies, and that they had the more reason to remain quiet because
Caesar was pushed by necessity. Yet, harassed by the whole army,
which was unduly puffed up by the victories at Dyrrachium, and by men of
rank who accused him of being fond of power and of delaying purposely in
order to prolong his authority over so many men of his own rank — and for
this reason called him derisively king of kings and Agamemnon,Afranius, who had been
accused of betraying his army in Spain, when he saw Pompey trying to
avoid a battle said he wondered why his accusers did not move forward
and fight this huckster of provinces.
Favonius, who had suggested
before they left Italy that Pompey should stamp armies out of the
ground, now said: Gentlemen, we shall not partake of the figs at
Tusculum this year.
(Finally allowing himself to be moved from
his purpose he yielded to their wish, a god now hurrying him to his
doom. As in other matters he had been, contrary to his nature, sluggish
and as it were stupefied through this whole war, so now,
etc.
That same night three of Caesar’s legions started out to forage; for
Caesar himself approved Pompey’s dilatory proceedings and had no
idea that he would change, and accordingly sent them out to procure food.
When he perceived that the enemy was preparing to fight he was delighted at
the pressure which he conjectured had been put upon Pompey by his army, and
he recalled all of his forces at once and made preparations on his own side.
He offered sacrifice at midnight and invoked Mars and his own ancestress,
Venus (for it was believed that from Aeneas and his son, Ilus, was
descended the Julian race, with a slight change of name), and he vowed that
he would build a temple in Rome as a thank-offering to her as the Bringer of
Victory if everything went well. Thereupon a flame from heaven flew through
the air from Caesar’s camp to Pompey’s, where it was extinguished.
Pompey’s men said that it signified a brilliant victory for them over their
enemies, but Caesar interpreted it as meaning that he should fall
upon and extinguish the fame and power of Pompey. When Pompey was
sacrificing the same night some of the victims escaped and could not be
caught, and a swarm of bees settled on the altar, the type of weakness.Never,
says Florus, were there more manifest signs of impending ruin.
When his friends aroused him he said that he had just dreamed that he had dedicated a temple in Rome to Venus the Bringer of Victory. His friends and his whole army when they heard of this were delighted, being in ignorance of Caesar’s vow, and they went about their work in a reckless and contemptuous way as though it were already accomplished. Many of them adorned their tents with laurel branches, the insignia of victory, and their slaves prepared magnificent banquets for them. Some of them began already to contend with each other for Caesar’s office of Pontifex Maximus. Pompey, being experienced in military affairs, turned away from these squabbles with concealed indignation. He remained altogether silent in hesitancy and dread, as though he were no longer commander but under command, and as though he were doing everything under compulsion and against his judgment; such dejection had come over this man of great deeds (who, until this day, had been most fortunate in every undertaking), either because he had not carried his point when he had decided what was the best course but was about to cast the die involving the safety of so many men and also involving his own reputation, until now invincible; or because some presentiment of approaching evil troubled him, presaging his complete downfall that very day from a position of such vast power. After merely saying to his friends that whichever should conquer, that day would be the beginning of great evils to the Romans for all future time, he began to make arrangements for the battle. In this remark some people thought his real intentions escaped him, involuntarily expressed in a moment of fright, and they inferred that if Pompey had been victorious he would not have laid down the supreme power.
Caesar’s army (for since many writers differ I shall follow the most
credible Roman authorities, who give the most careful enumeration of the
Italian soldiers, in whom they place most confidence, but do not make much
account of the allied forces or record them exactly, regarding them as
foreigners and as contributing to them little real assistance) consisted of
about 22,000 men and of these about 1000 were cavalry. Pompey had more than
double that number, of whom about 7000 were cavalry. Some of the most
trustworthy writers say that 70,000 Italian soldiers were engaged in this
battle. Others give the smaller number, 60,00000. Still others, grossly
exaggerating, say 400,000.Never did fortune
behold so large a force of the Roman people or so much of their dignity
collected in one place. More than 300,000 men were assembled on one side
and the other, in addition to the auxiliaries of kings and
nations.
They came
to take part in this war merely to have the glory of fighting in a
contest where the empire of the Roman people was at stake.
Besides the Greeks almost all the nations that one meets in making the
circuit of the eastern sea sent aid to Pompey: Thracians, Hellespontines,
Bithynians, Phrygians, Ionians, Lydians, Pamphylians, Pisidians,
Paphlagonians, Cilicians, Syrians, Phœnicians, Hebrews, and their
neighbors the Arabs, Cyprians, Rhodians, Cretan slingers, and other
islanders. Kings and princes were there leading their own troops:
Deïotarus, the tetrarch of Galatia in the East, and Ariarthes, king
of Cappadocia. Taxiles commanded
the Armenians from the hither side of the Euphrates. Those from the other side were led by Megabates, the lieutenant of King Artabazes. Some other small princes took part with Pompey in the work. It was said that sixty ships from Egypt were contributed to him by the sovereigns of that country, Cleopatra and her brother, who was still a boy. But these did not take part in the battle, nor did any other naval force. They remained idle at Corcyra. Pompey seems to have acted very foolishly in this respect in disregarding the fleet, in which he excelled so greatly that he could have deprived the enemy of all the supplies brought to them from abroad, and in risking a battle on land with men who boasted that they were inured to every kind of toil and who were ferocious fighters. Although he had been on his guard against them at Dyrrachium, a certain spell seems to have come over him at a time when it would inure most to Caesar’s advantage. Under this spell also Pompey’s army was most nonsensically puffed up, and rendered insubordinate to its own commander, and hurried into action without previous experience in war. But this was the ordering of divine Providence to bring in the imperial power which now embraces everything.
Then each of the commanders assembled his soldiers and made an appeal to
them. Pompey spoke as follows: You, my fellow soldiers, are the leaders in
this task rather than the led, for while I was still desirous of wearing
Caesar out by hunger you urged on this engagement. Since,
therefore, you are the arbiters of the battle, conduct yourselves like those
who are greatly superior in numbers. Despise the enemy as victors do the
vanquished, as young men do the old, as fresh troops do those who are
wearied with many toils. Fight like those who have the power and the means,
and the consciousness of a good cause. We are contending for liberty and
country. On our side are the laws and honorable fame, and this great number
of senators and knights, against one man who has seized the government by
robbery.
Such was Pompey’s
speech. The cutpurse of the empire and the rule.
Caesar addressed his men as follows: My friends, we have already
overcome our most formidable enemies, and are now about to encounter not
hunger and want, but men. This day will decide everything. Remember what you
promised me at Dyrrachium. Remember how you swore to each other in my
presence that you would never leave the field except as conquerors. These
men, fellow-soldiers, are the same that we met at the Pillars of Hercules,
the same that we drove out of Italy. They are the same who sought to disband
us without honors, without a triumph, without rewards, after the toils and
struggles of ten years, after we had finished those great wars, after
innumerable victories, and after we had added 400 nations in Spain, Gaul,
and Britain to our country’s sway. I have not been able to prevail upon them
by offering fair terms, nor to win them by benefits. You know that I
dismissed them unharmed, hoping that we should obtain justice from them.
Recall all these facts to your minds to-day, and if you have had any
experience of me recall also my care for you, my good faith, and the
generosity of my gifts to you.
Nor is it difficult for hardy and veteran soldiers to overcome new
recruits who are without experience in war, and who, moreover, like boys,
spurn the rules of discipline and of obedience to their commander. I learn
that he was afraid and unwilling to come to an engagement. His star has
already passed its zenith; he has become slow and hesitating in all his
acts, and no longer commands, but obeys the orders of others. I say these
things of his Italian forces only. As for his allies, do not think about
them, pay no attention to them, do not fight with them at all. They are
Syrian, Phrygian, and Lydian slaves, always ready for flight or servitude. I
know very well, and you will presently see, that Pompey himself will not
assign them any place in his line of battle. Give your attention to the
Italians only, even though these allies come running around you like dogs
trying to frighten you. When you have put the enemy to flight let us spare
the Italians as being our own kindred, but slaughter the allies in order to
strike terror into the others. Before all else, in order that I may know
that you are mindful of your promise to choose victory or death, throw down
the walls of your camp as you go out to battle and fill up the ditch, so
that we may have no place of refuge if we do not conquer, and so that the
enemy may see that we have no camp and know that we are compelled to occupy
theirs.
He exhorted the army to battle,
he says, according to the military
custom, and spoke of the kindness he had shown them at all times, and
especially reminded them, as the soldiers themselves could bear witness,
with what earnestness he had sought for peace, what efforts he had made
in his conference with Vatinius, what he had endeavored to do in the
negotiation with Scipio through Aulus Claudius, and how he had labored
with Libo at Oricum for the privilege of sending legates. He said that
he never willingly shed the blood of his soldiers, and that it was not
his wish that the republic should lose one of its armies. Having spoken
thus he gave the signal by trumpet to the soldiers, who were eagerly
awaiting it and burning with zeal for the battle.
(iii. go.) Suetonius,
Florus, and Lucan mention Caesar’s appeal to his soldiers to
spare their fellow-citizens in the pursuit, but Florus says it was
intended only for effect. Lucan refers to Caesar’s order to
demolish the fortifications of his camp before the battle.
(
Nevertheless, after he had thus spoken Caesar detailed 2000 of his
oldest men to guard the tents. The rest, as they passed out, demolished
their fortification in the profoundest silence and filled up the ditch with
the debris. When Pompey saw this, although some of his friends thought that
it was a preparation for flight, he knew it was an exhibition of daring and
groaned in spirit, that although they had with them famine, the most
appropriate cure for such wild beasts, he must now meet these creatures in a
hand-to-hand contest. But there was no drawing back now, his affairs being
on the razor’s edge.
The centre of Pompey’s formation was commanded by his father-in-law, Scipio,
the left wing by Domitius Ahenobarbus, and the right by Lentulus. Afranius
and Pompey guarded the camp.Fearing lest his
right wing should be surrounded by the greater number of the enemy’s
horse he rapidly withdrew from the third line one cohort from each
legion, and from these formed a fourth line and ranged them in
opposition to the enemy’s cavalry and explained what he wished them to
do and admonished them that the success of this day depended on their
valor.
(iii. 89.) He says nothing about aiming at the faces of the
enemy. It is mentioned by Plutarch, by Lucan, and by Florus, but is
probably a fable.Venus the Victorious,
and
on Pompey’s Hercules the Invincible.
When all was in readiness on both sides they waited for some time in profound
silence, hesitating, looking steadfastly at each other, each expecting the
other to begin the battle. They were stricken with sorrow for the great
host, for never before had such large Roman armies confronted the same
danger together. They had pity for the valor of these men (the elite of both
parties), especially because they saw Romans embattled against Romans. As
the danger came nearer, the ambition that had inflamed and blinded them was
extinguished, and gave place to fear. Reason purged the mad passion for
glory, estimated the peril, and exposed the cause of the war, showing how
two men contending with each other for supremacy had put themselves in a
position where the one who should be vanquished could no longer hold even
the humblest place, and how so great a number of the nobility were incurring
the same risk on their account. The leaders reflected also that they, who
had lately been friends and relatives by marriage, and had
coöperated with each other in many ways to gain rank and power, had
now drawn the sword for mutual slaughter and were leading to the same
impiety those serving under them, men of the same city, of the same tribe,
blood relations, and in some cases brothers against brothers. Even these
circumstances were not wanting in this battle; because many unexpected
things must happen when thousands of the same nation come together in the
clash of arms. Reflecting on these things each of them was seized with
unavailing repentance, and since this day was to decide for each whether he
should be the highest or the lowest of the human race, they hesitated to
begin the fight. It is said that both of them shed tears.
While they were waiting and looking at each other the day was advancing. All
the Italian troops stood motionless in their places, but when Pompey saw
that his allied forces were falling into confusion by reason of the delay he
feared lest the disorder should spread from them before the beginning of the
battle. So he gave the signal first and Caesar reëchoed
it. Straightway the trumpets, of which there were many distributed among so
great a host, aroused the soldiers with their inspiring blasts, and the
standard-bearers and officers put themselves in motion and exhorted their
men. The latter advanced confidently to the encounter, but with stolidity
and absolute silence, like men who had had experience in many similar
engagements. And now, as they came nearer together, there was first a
discharge of arrows and stones. Then as the cavalry were a little in advance
of the infantry they charged each other. Those of Pompey prevailed and began
to flank the tenth legion. Caesar then gave the signal to the
cohorts in ambush and these, starting up suddenly, advanced to meet the
cavalry, and with spears elevated aimed at the faces of the riders. The
latter could not endure the enemy’s savagery, nor the blows on their mouths
and eyes, but fled in disorder. Thereupon Caesar’s men,Caesar’s
horse,
but Schweighäuser considers this a manifest error since
Appian, in Sec. 79, says that it was the tenth legion that struck
Pompey’s left flank. Caesar himself says that the six cohorts
in reserve executed this decisive movement. At all events it could not
have been Caesar’s horse.
When Pompey learned this he ordered his infantry not to advance farther, not
to break the line of formation, and not to hurl the javelin, but to bring
their spears to a rest and ward off the onset of the enemy. Some persons
praise this order of Pompey as the best in a case where one is attacked in
flank, but Caesar criticises it in his letters.This,
he continues, seems to me to have been an error on Pompey’s
part, because there is a certain ardor and eagerness of spirit inborn in
mankind, which is excited in the heat of battle, and which commanders
ought to encourage, not repress.
As Pompey’s left wing began to give way his men even still retired step by
step and in perfect order, but the allies who had not been in the fight,
fled with headlong speed, shouting, we are vanquished,
dashed upon their
own tents and fortifications as though they had been the enemy’s, and pulled
down and plundered whatever they could carry away in their flight. Now the
rest of Pompey’s legions, perceiving the disaster to the left wing, retired
slowly at first, in good order, and still resisting as well as they could;
but when the enemy, flushed with victory, pressed upon them they turned in
flight. Then, in order that they might not rally, and that this might be the
end of the whole war and not of one battle merely, Caesar, with the
greatest prudence, sent heralds everywhere among the ranks to order the
victors to spare their own countrymen and to smite only the auxiliaries. The
heralds drew near to the retreating enemy and told them to stand still
without fear. As this proclamation was passed from man to man they halted,
and the phrase stand without fear
began to be passed as a sort of
watchword among Pompey’s soldiers; for, being Italians, they were clad in
the same style as Caesar’s men and spoke the same language.
Accordingly, the latter passed by them and fell upon the auxiliaries, who
were not able to resist, and made a very great slaughter among them.
When Pompey saw the retreat of his men he became dazed and retired slowly to
his camp, and when he reached his tent he sat down speechless,
The latter (
Here is fresh confirmation of the belief that both Appian and
Plutarch drew from a Greek, not from a Latin, source, for if they had
translated from Latin it is most improbable that they would have used
the same Greek words, in the same, or very nearly the same, order.
Moreover, both of them make reference here to the Iliad xi. 543, where
Ajax Telamon is smitten with panic by Zeus in the midst of battle.
Plutarch quotes the passage itself.
camp, telling them that if they allowed the enemy to rally they would be the
victors for only a single day, whereas if they should take the enemy’s camp
they would finish the war with this one blow. He stretched out his hands to
them and took the lead in person. Although they were weary in body, the
words and example of their commander lightened their spirits. Their success
so far, and the hope of capturing the enemy’s camp and the contents thereof,
excited them; for in the midst of hope and prosperity men feel fatigue
least. So they fell upon the camp and assaulted it with the utmost disdain
for the defenders. When Pompey learned this he started up from his strange
silence, exclaiming, What! in our very camp?
Having spoken thus he changed
his clothing, mounted a horse, and fled with four friends, and did not draw
rein until he reached Larissa early the next morning. So Caesar
established himself in Pompey’s camp as he had promised to do when he was
preparing for the battle, and ate Pompey’s supper, and the whole army
feasted at the enemy’s expense.He sat in silence until some of those who were pursuing the fugitives
rushed in with them, when he uttered the single sentence:
(What! in our
very camp?
He spoke not another word, but put on clothing suited to
his present fortune and stole away.When our men forced their way into his
intrenchment Pompey threw off his general’s uniform, mounted a horse,
went out by the rear gate of his camp and urged his horse with all speed
to Larissa. Nor did he stop there, but with the same speed, having
collected a few of his scattered soldiers, still travelling by night,
with a company of thirty horsemen, he pushed on to the sea where he
embarked on a supply ship,
etc. (iii. 96.)
The losses of Italians on each side — for there was no report of the losses
of auxiliaries, either because of their multitude or because they were
despised — were as follows: in Caesar’s army. thirty centurions
and 200 legionaries, or, as some authorities have it, 1200; on Pompey’s side ten senators, among whom was Lucius
Domitius, the same who had been sent to succeed Caesar himself in
Gaul, and about forty distinguished knights. Some exaggerating writers put
the loss in the remainder of his forces at 25,000, but Asinius Pollio, who
was one of Caesar’s officers in this battle, records the number of
dead Pompeians found as 6000.exaggerating
writers.
We shall
conquer, O Caesar, and you will thank me either living or dead.
The whole army testifies that he darted through the ranks like one possessed
and did many brilliant deeds. When sought for he was found among the dead,
and Caesar bestowed military honors on his body and buried it, and
erected a special tomb for him near the common burial-place of the
others.
From Larissa Pompey continued his flight to the sea where he embarked in a
small boat, and meeting a ship by chance he sailed to Mitylene. There he
joined his wife, Cornelia, and they embarked with four triremes which had
come to him from Rhodes and Tyre. He decided not to sail for Corcyra and
Africa, where he had other large military and naval forces as yet untouched,
but intended to push on eastward to the king of the Parthians, expecting to
receive every assistance from him. He concealed his intention until he
arrived at Cilicia, where he revealed it hesitatingly to his friends; but
they advised him to beware of the Parthian, against whom Crassus had lately
led an expedition, and who was puffed up by his victory over the latter, and
especially not to put in the power of these barbarians the beautiful
Cornelia, who had formerly been the wife of Crassus.
Cleopatra, who had previously reigned with her brother, had been lately
expelled from Egypt and was collecting an army in Syria. Ptolemy, her
brother, was at Mount Casius in Egypt,that if they
should give shelter to the fugitive they would have Caesar for
an enemy and Pompey for a master; if they should send him away he would
be offended by their want of hospitality, and Caesar would be
angry with them for letting him escape. The best way would be to send
for him and kill him. In that way they would gratify the one and need
not fear the other. He added with a smile that dead men do not bite.
(
Pompey’s suspicions were aroused by all that he observed — the marshalling
of the army, the meanness of the skiff, and the fact that the king himself
did not come to meet him nor send any of his high dignitaries. Nevertheless,
he entered the skiff, repeating to himself these lines of Sophocles,
Whoever resorts to a tyrant becomes his slave, even if he were free when he
went.
While rowing to the shore all were silent, and this made him still
more suspicious. Finally, either recognizing Sempronius as a Roman soldier
who had served under him or guessing that he was such because he alone
remained standing (for, according to military discipline, a soldier does not
sit in the presence of his commander), he turned to him and said, Do I not
know you, comrade?
The other nodded and, as Pompey turned away, he
immediately gave him the first stab and the others followed his example.
Pompey’s wife and friends who saw this at a distance cried out and, lifting
their hands to heaven, invoked the gods, the avengers of violated faith.
Then they sailed away in all haste as from an enemy’s country.
The servants of Pothinus cut off Pompey’s head and kept it for Caesar, in expectation of a large reward, but he visited condign punishment on them for their nefarious deed. The remainder of the body was buried by somebody on the shore, and a small monument was erected over it, on which somebody else wrote this inscription: —
What a pitiful tomb is here for one who had temples in abundance.
Such,
says another historian, was the
departure from life of a most excellent and illustrious man, after three
consulships and as many triumphs, who had ruled the whole world and had
reached a position above which it was not possible to rise, in the 58th
year of his age and on the day before his birthday. So greatly had
fortune been at strife with herself in his case that he who had been in
want of earth to conquer was now in want of enough for a grave.
(while he was passing from Judea to Egypt he
offered a funeral sacrifice for Pompey, on which occasion the following
verse escaped him:
This
is not inconsistent with Appian’s narrative.What a pitiful tomb is here for one who had temples
in abundance.
He also rebuilt the tomb that had fallen into ruin.
In the course of time the monument was wholly covered with sand, and the
bronze images that had been erected to Pompey by his partisans at a later
period near Mount Casius had been degraded and removed to the secret recess
of the temple, but in my time they were sought for and found by the Roman
emperor Hadrian, while making a journey thither, who cleared away the
rubbish from the monument and made it again conspicuous, and placed Pompey’s
images in their proper places. Such was the end of Pompey, who had carried
on the greatest wars and had made the greatest additions to the empire of
the Romans, and had acquired by that means the title of Great. He had never
been defeated before,
Lucius Scipio, Pompey’s father-in-law, and the other notables who had escaped from the battle of Pharsalus, more prudent than Pompey, proceeded to Corcyra and joined Cato, who had been left there with another army and 300 triremes. The leaders apportioned the fleet among themselves, and Cassius sailed to Pharnaces in Pontus to induce him to take up arms against Caesar. Scipio and Cato embarked for Africa, relying on Varus and his army and his ally, Juba, king of Numidia. The elder son of Pompey, together with Labienus and Scapula, each with his own part of the army, hastened to Spain and, having detached it from Caesar, collected a new army of Spaniards, Celtiberians, and slaves, and made formidable preparations for war. So great were the forces still remaining which Pompey had prepared, and which Pompey himself over-looked and ran away from in his insanity. Cato had been chosen commander of the forces in Africa, but he declined the appointment since there were consulars present who outranked him, he having held only the praetorship in Rome. So Lucius Scipio was made the commander and he collected and drilled a large army there. Thus two armies of considerable magnitude were brought together against Caesar, one in Africa and the other in Spain.
Caesar remained two days at Pharsalus after the victory, offering
sacrifice and giving his army a respite from fighting. Then he set free his
Thessalian allies and granted pardon to the suppliant Athenians, and said to
them, How often will the glory of your ancestors save you from
self-destruction?
On the third day he marched eastward, having learned that
Pompey had fled thither, and for want of triremes he essayed to cross the
Hellespont in skiffs. Here Cassius came upon him in mid-stream, with a part
of his fleet, as he was hastening to Pharnaces. Although he might have
mastered these small boats with his numerous triremes he was panic-stricken
by Caesar’s astounding success, which was then heralded with
consternation everywhere, and he thought that Caesar had sailed
purposely against him. So he extended his hands in entreaty from his trireme
toward the skiff, begged pardon, and surrendered his fleet. So great was the
power of Caesar’s prestige. I can see no other reason myself, nor
can I think of any other instance where fortune was more propitious in a
trying emergency than when Cassius, a most valiant man, with seventy
triremes, fell in with Caesar when he was unprepared, but did not
venture to come to blows with him. And yet he who thus disgracefully
surrendered to Caesar, through fear alone, when the latter was
crossing the straits, afterward murdered him in Rome when he was at the
height of his power; by which fact it is evident that the panic which then
seized Cassius was due to the fortune by which Caesar was
uplifted.
Cassius,
he adds, would have done the deed himself in Cilicia, at the
mouth of the river Cydnus, without the help of his illustrious friends,
if Caesar had landed on the shore where he (Cassius) had
halted, instead of the opposite one.
In other words they passed each
other at the mouth of the Cydnus, as Caesar was proceeding to
Egypt. Suetonius (
Being thus unexpectedly saved, Caesar passed the Hellespont and granted pardon to the Ionians, the Aeolians, and the other peoples who inhabit the great peninsula called by the common name of Lower Asia, and who sent ambassadors to him to ask it. Learning that Pompey had gone to Egypt he sailed for Rhodes. He did not wait there for his army, which was coming forward by detachments, but embarked with those whom he had on board the triremes of Cassius and the Rhodians. Letting nobody know whither he intended to go he set sail toward evening, telling the other pilots to steer by the torch of his own ship by night and by his signal in the daytime. After they had proceeded a long way from the land he ordered his pilot to steer for Alexandria. After a three days’ sail he arrived there. He was received by the king’s guardians, the king himself being still at Mount Casius. At first, on account of the smallness of his forces, he pretended to take his ease, receiving visitors in a friendly way, traversing the city, admiring its beauty, and listening to the lectures of the philosophers while he stood among the crowd. Thus he gained the good-will and esteem of the Alexandrians as one who had no designs against them.
When his soldiers arrived by sea he punished Pothinus and Achillas with death
for their crime against Pompey.
After Caesar had performed these exploits in Alexandria he hastened
by way of Syria against Pharnaces. The latter had Already accomplished many
of his aims, had seized some of the Roman countries, had fought a battle
with Caesar’s lieutenant, Domitius, and won a very brilliant
victory over him. Being much elated by this affair he had subjugated the
city of Amisus in Pontus, which adhered to the Roman interest, sold their
inhabitants into slavery, and made all their boys eunuchs. On the approach
of Caesar he became alarmed and repented of his deeds, and when
Caesar was within 200 stades he sent ambassadors to him to treat
for peace. They bore a golden crown and foolishly offered him the daughter
of Pharnaces in marriage. When Caesar learned what they were
bringing he moved forward with his army, walking in advance and chatting
with the ambassadors until he arrived at the camp of Pharnaces, when he
merely said, Why should I not take instant vengeance on this parricide?
Then he sprang upon his horse and at the first shout put Pharnaces to flight
and killed a large number of the enemy, although he had with him only about
1000 of his own cavalry who had accompanied him in the advance. Here it is
said that he exclaimed, O fortunate Pompey, who wast considered and named
the Great for warring against such men as these in the time of Mithridates,
the father of this man.
Of this battle he wrote to Rome the words, I came,
I saw, I conquered.
After this, Pharnaces was glad to escape to the kingdom which Pompey had
assigned to him on the Bosporus. As Caesar had no time to waste on
small matters while such great wars were still unfinished elsewhere, he
returned to the province of Asia and while passing through it transacted
public business in the cities, which were oppressed by the farmers of the
revenue, as I have shown in my Asiatic history.tenth book, Grecian and Ionian.
Schweighäuser thinks that this is the book here referred
to.
The soldiers ran together tumultuously without arms, and, as was their
custom, saluted their commander who had suddenly appeared among them. When
he bade them tell what they wanted they were so surprised that they did not
venture to speak openly of the donative in his presence, but they adopted
the more moderate course of demanding their discharge from the service,
hoping that, since he needed soldiers for the unfinished wars, he would
speak about the donative himself. But, contrary to the expectation of all,
he replied without hesitation, I discharge you.
Then, to their still
greater astonishment, and while the silence was most profound, he added,
And I will give you all that I have promised when I have my triumph with
others.
At this expression, as unexpected as it was kind to them, shame
immediately took possession of all, and reflection, together with jealousy
at the thought of their abandoning their commander in the midst of such
great wars and of others joining in the triumph instead of themselves, and
of their losing the gains of the war in Africa, which were expected to be
great, and becoming enemies of Caesar himself as well as of the
opposite party. Moved by these fears they remained still more silent and
embarrassed, hoping that Caesar would yield and change his mind on
account of his immediate necessity. But he remained silent also, until his
friends urged him to say something more to them and not leave his old
comrades of so many campaigns with a short and austere word. Then he began
to speak, addressing them first as citizens,
not fellow-soliders,
which
implied that they were already discharged from the army and were private
individuals.
They could endure it no longer, but cried out that they repented of what they
had done, and besought him to keep them in his service. But Caesar
turned away and was leaving the platform when they shouted with greater
eagerness and urged him to stay and punish them for their misdeeds. He
delayed a while longer, not going away and not turning back, but pretending
to be undecided. At length he came back and said that he would not punish
any of them, but that he was grieved that even the tenth legion, to which he
had always given the first place of honor, should join in such a riot. And
this legion alone,
he continued, I will discharge from the service.
Nevertheless, when I return from Africa I will give them all that I have
promised. And when the wars are ended I will give lands to all, not as Sulla
did by taking it from the present holders and colonizing the takers among
the losers, and making them everlasting enemies to each other, but I will
give the public land, and my own, and will purchase what may be needful.
There was clapping of hands and joyful acclaim on all sides, but the tenth
legion was plunged in grief because to them alone Caesar appeared
inexorable. They begged him to choose a portion of their number by lot and
put them to death. But Caesar, seeing that there was no need of
stimulating them any further when they had repented so bitterly, became
reconciled to all, and departed straightway for the war in Africa.
He crossed from Rhegium to Messana and went to Lilybaeum.Let us not deprive our general, Scipio, of the
victory.
In one part of the day’s work did Caesar’s luck show
itself, in that the victorious enemy seems to have abandoned the field at
the very moment of success. It is said that in the flight Caesar
dashed up to his whole line
Not long afterward it was reported that Scipio himself was advancing with
eight legions of foot, 20,000 horse (of which most were Africans), and a
large number of light-armed troops, and thirty elephants; together with King
Juba, who had some 30,000 foot-soldiers in addition, raised for this war,
and 20,000 Numidian cavalry, besides a large number of spearmen and sixty
elephants. Caesar’s army began to be alarmed and a tumult broke out
among them on account of the disaster they had already experienced and of
the reputation of the forces advancing against them, and especially of the
numbers and bravery of the Numidian cavalry. War with elephants, to which
they were unaccustomed, also frightened them.Whenever,
says Suetonius, his (Caesar’s)
troops were dispirited by reports of the great force of the enemy, he
rallied their courage not by denying the truth of what was said or
minimizing the facts but on the contrary by exaggerating every
particular. Accordingly, when his troops were in great alarm at the
expected arrival of King Juba, he called them together and said,
(I have
to inform you that in a very few days the king will be here with ten
legions, 30,000 horse, 100,000 light-armed foot, and 300 elephants. Let
none of you therefore presume to make any further inquiry or indulge in
conjectures, but take my word for what I tell you, which I have from
undoubted intelligence; otherwise I shall put them aboard an old crazy
vessel and leave them exposed to the mercy of the winds to be
transported to some other country.
The battle was long, severe, and doubtful in all parts of the field until
toward evening, when victory declared itself on the side of Caesar,
who went straight on and captured Scipio’s camp and did not desist, even in
the night, from reaping the fruits of his victory until he had made a clean
sweep.crushed
war
would be a wonderful thing. It may mean that the war, crushed out
in this way, quickly came to an end.
As these facts became known at Utica some three days later, and as
Caesar was marching right against that place, a general flight
began. Cato did not detain anybody. He gave ships to all the nobility who
asked for them, but himself adhered firmly to his post. When the inhabitants
of Utica promised to intercede for him before doing so for themselves, he
answered with a smile that he did not need any intercessors with
Caesar, and that Caesar knew it very well. Then he placed
his seal on all the public property and gave the accounts of each kind to
the magistrates of Utica. Toward evening he bathed and dined. He ate in a
sitting posture, as had been his custom since Pompey’s death.the makers of the Latin
version seem not to have known the meaning of the verb
He thinks that Cato suspected
his cook. He feared poison. The passage, he thinks should be translated:
Being seated he caused the food to be tasted according to the custom
he had adopted since the death of Pompey.
What weapon shall I use if I am
attacked in the night?
he said.Could I not strangle myself with my clothing if I wished
to, or knock my brains out against the wall, or throw myself headlong to the
ground, or destroy myself by holding my breath?
Much more he said to the
same purport until he persuaded them to bring back his sword. When it had
been put in its place he called for Plato’s treatise on the soul and began
to read.
When he had read the book through and when he thought that those who were
stationed at the doors were asleep, he stabbed himself under the breast. His
intestines protruded and the attendants heard a groan and rushed in.
Physicians replaced his bowels, which were still uninjured, in his body, and
after sewing up the wound put a bandage around it. When Cato came to himself
he dissembled again. Although he blamed himself for the insufficiency of the
wound, he expressed thanks to those who had saved him and said that he only
needed sleep. The attendants then retired, taking the sword with them, and
closed the door, thinking that he had become quiet. When Cato thought that
they were asleep, he tore off the bandage with his hands without making any
noise, opened the suture of the wound, enlarged it with his nails like a
wild beast, plunged his fingers into his stomach, and tore out his entrails
until he died, being then about fifty years of age. He was considered the
most steadfast of all men in upholding any opinion that he had once espoused
and in adhering to justice, rectitude, and morality, not as a matter of
custom merely, but rather from high-souled considerations. He had married
Marcia, the daughter of Philippus, when she was a virgin. He was extremely
fond of her and had had children by her. Nevertheless, he gave her to
Hortensius, one of his friends, — who desired to have children but was
married to a barren wife, — until she bore a child to him also, when Cato
took her back to his own house as though he had merely loaned her.O Cato, I envy thee thy death because thou
did’st envy me my safety.
Juba and Petreius, in view of the circumstances, perceiving no chance of
flight or safety, slew each other with swords at a banquet. Caesar
made Juba’s kingdom tributary to the Romans and appointed Sallustius Crispus
its governor. He pardoned the Uticans and the son of Cato. He captured the
daughter of Pompey together with her two children in Utica and sent them
safe to young Pompey. Of the 300 he put to death all that he found.
When Caesar returned to Rome he had four triumphs together: one for
his Gallic wars, in which he had added many great nations to the Roman sway
and subdued others that had revolted; one for the Pontic war against
Pharnaces; one for the war in Africa against the African allies of L.
Scipio, in which the historian Juba (the son of King Juba), then an infant,
was led a captive. Between the Gallic and the Pontic triumphs he introduced
a kind of the Egyptian, the Pontic, and the African, not over
Scipio but probably over King Juba, whose son, still a boy, was led in
the triumph, being most fortunate in his captivity since he was thus
changed from a barbarous Numidian to one of the most learned of Greek
writers.
It is said that money to the amount of 60,500 talents [of silver] was borne
in the procession and 2822 crowns of gold weighing 20,414 pounds, from which
wealth Caesar made apportionments immediately after the triumph,
paying the army all that he had promised and more. Each soldier received
5000 Attic drachmas, each centurion double, and each tribune of infantry and
praefect of cavalry fourfold that sum. To each plebeian citizen
also was given an Attic mina. He gave also various spectacles with horses
and music, a combat of foot-soldiers, 1000 on each side, and a cavalry fight
of 200 on each side. There was also another combat of horse and foot
together. There was a combat of elephants, twenty against twenty, and a
naval engagement of 4000 oarsmen, where 1000 fighting men contended on each
side. He erected a temple to Venus, his ancestress, as he had vowed to do
when he was about to begin the battle of Pharsalus, and he laid out ground
around the temple which he intended to be a forum for the Roman people, not
for buying and selling, but a meeting-place for the transaction of public
business, like the public squares of the Persians, where the people assemble
to seek justice or to learn the laws. He placed a beautiful image of
Cleopatra by the side of the goddess, which stands there to this day. He
caused an enumeration of the people to be made, and it is said that it was
found to be only one-half of the number existing before this war.After the
games the census was taken and instead of the former 320,000 inhabitants
the whole number amounted to 150,000.
This seems incredible. A note on
this passage in Langhorne’s Plutarch says that Rualdus has not only
proved by other testimony that this is erroneous but has shown how the
error came to be made. He says that Plutarch, for want of a thorough
knowledge of Latin, was misled by a passage in Suetonius which says that
Caesar made a new census (
The
he took a new census (
meaning probably the number entitled
to receive corn.
Caesar, now in his fourth consulship, marched against young Pompeius
in Spain. This was all that was left of the civil war, but it was not to be
despised, for such of the nobility as had escaped from Africa had assembled
here. The army was composed of soldiers from Pharsalus and Africa itself,
who had come hither with their leaders, and of Spaniards and Celtiberians, a
strong and warlike race. There was a great number of emancipated slaves also
in Pompeius’ camp. All had been under discipline four years and were ready
to fight with desperation. Pompeius was misled by this fact and did not
postpone the battle, but engaged Caesar straightway on his arrival,
although the older ones, who had learned by experience at Pharsalus and
Africa, advised him to wear Caesar out by delay and reduce him to
want, as he was in a hostile country. Caesar made the journey from
Rome in twenty-seven days, coming with a heavily-laden army by a very long
For this reason Caesar himself also was ready to move slowly until
Pompeius approached him at a certain place where he was reconnoitering and
accused him of cowardice. Caesar could not endure this reproach. He
drew up his forces for battle near Corduba
This shall be the end of my life and of your military service.Then he sprang forward in advance of his line of battle toward the enemy so far that he was only ten feet distant from them. Some 200 missiles were aimed at him, some of which he dodged while others were caught on his shield. Then each of the tribunes ran toward him and took position by his side, and the whole army rushed forward and fought the entire day, advancing and retreating by turns until, toward evening, Caesar with difficulty won the victory. It was reported that he said that he had often fought for victory, but that this time he had fought even for existence.
After a great slaughter the Pompeians fled to Corduba, and Caesar,
in order to prevent the fugitives from preparing for another battle, ordered
a siege of that place. The soldiers, wearied with toil, piled the bodies and
arms of the slain together, fastened them to the earth with spears, and
encamped behind this kind of a wall. On the following day the city was
taken. Scapula, one of the Pompeian leaders, erected a funeral pile on which
he consumed himself. The heads of Varus, Labienus, and other distinguished
men were brought to Caesar.
Having ended the civil wars Caesar hastened to Rome, honored and
feared as no one had ever been before. All kinds of honors were devised for
his gratification without stint, even such as were superhuman — sacrifices,
games, statues in all the temples and public places, by every tribe, by all
the provinces, and by the kings in alliance with Rome. His likeness was
painted in various forms, in some cases crowned with oak as the savior of
his country, by which crown the citizens were accustomed formerly to reward
those to whom they owed their safety. He was proclaimed the Father of his
Country and chosen dictator for life and consul for ten years, and his
person was declared sacred and inviolable. It was decreed that he should
transact business on a throne of ivory and gold; that he should perform his
sacerdotal functions always in triumphal costume; that each year the city
should celebrate the days on which he had won his victories; that every five
years the priests and Vestal virgins should offer up public prayers for his
safety; and that the magistrates immediately upon their inauguration should
take an oath not to oppose any of Caesar’s decrees. In honor of his
Thus while they feared his power they besought his clemency. There were some
who proposed to give him the title of king, but when he learned of their
purpose he forbade it with threats, saying that it was an inauspicious name
by reason of the curse of their ancestors. He dismissed the
praetorian cohorts that had served as his bodyguard during the
wars, and showed himself with the ordinary public attendance only.his friends
advised him to have a body-guard and many of them offered their services
in this capacity, but he refused, saying that it was better to die once
than to be always afraid of death.
(the republic is a mere name without substance or
semblance. Sulla did not know his A B C’s (
(
Some person among those who wished to spread the report of his desire to be
king placed a crown of laurel on his statue, bound with a white fillet. The
tribunes, Marullus and Caesetius, sought out this person and put
him in prison, pretending to gratify Caesar in this way, as he had
threatened any who should talk about making him king. Caesar was
well satisfied with their action. Some others who met him at the city gates
as he was returning from some place greeted him as king, and when the people
groaned, he said with happy readiness to those who had thus saluted him, I
am no king, I am Caesar,
as though they had mistaken his name. The
attendants of Marullus
When Caesar perceived this he repented, and, reflecting that this
was the first severe and arbitrary act that he had done without military
authority and in time of peace, it is said that he ordered his friends to
protect him, since he had given his enemies the handle they were seeking
against him. But when they asked him if he would bring together again his
Spanish cohorts as a body-guard, he said, There is nothing more unlucky
than perpetual watching; that is the part of one who is always afraid.
Nor
were the attempts to claim royal honors for him brought to an end even thus,
for, while he was in the forum looking at the games of the Lupercal, seated
on his golden chair before the rostra, Antony, his colleague in the
consulship, who was running naked and anointed, as was the priests’ custom
at that festival,he put it away, but in such a manner that he did not
seem offended.
The words that Shakespeare puts in the mouth of Casca in
the play of
And now Caesar, either renouncing his hope, or tired out, and wishing to avoid the plot and accusation, or giving up the city to certain of his enemies, or to cure his bodily ailment of epilepsy and convulsions, which came upon him suddenly and especially when he was inactive, conceived the idea of a long campaign against the Getae and the Parthians. The Getae, a hardy, warlike, and neigh-boring nation, were to be attacked first. The Parthians were to be punished for their perfidy toward Crassus. He sent across the Adriatic in advance sixteen legions of foot and 10,000 horse. And now another rumor gained currency that the Sibylline books had predicted that the Parthians would never submit to the Romans until the latter should be commanded by a king. For this reason some people ventured to say that Caesar ought to be called dictator and emperor of the Romans, as he was in fact, or whatever other name they might prefer to that of king, and that he ought to be distinctly named king of the nations that were subject to the Romans. Caesar declined this also, and was wholly engaged in hastening his departure from the city in which he was exposed to such envy.
Four days before his intended departure he was slain by his enemies in the
senate-house, either from jealousy of his fortune and power, now grown to
enormous proportions, or, as they themselves alleged, from a desire to
restore the republic of their fathers; for they well knew that if he should
conquer those nations he would be a king without a doubt.or, as they alleged,
from a desire to restore the republic (for they knew Caesar
well), lest, if he should conquer those nations also, he should
presently become king of the Romans without a doubt.
Geslen considered
the passage corrupt and substituted I think upon reflection,
etc.
Brutus and Cassius, who had been designated as praetors at the same
time, had a controversy with each other as to which of them should be the
city praetor, this being the place of highest honor, either because
they were really ambitious of the distinction or as a pretence so that they
might not seem to have a common understanding with each other.
Caesar, who was chosen umpire between them, is reported to have
said to his friends that justice seemed to be on the side of Cassius, but
that he must nevertheless favor Brutus. He exhibited the same affection and
preference for this man in all things. It was even thought that Brutus was
his son, as Caesar was the lover of his mother, Servilia (Cato’s
sister) at the time of his birth,As we ought not to omit
even the smallest indications that show the mental image of the man, it
is said that while Caesar was engaged in a severe struggle and
controversy with Cato on this subject, and the Senate was hanging on
their words, a little tablet was brought in to Caesar. Cato
considered this a suspicious circumstance and slandered him so that some
of the senators were moved to ask that the contents be read.
Caesar handed the tablet to Cato, who was standing near. It was
an immodest letter from his own sister Servilia to Caesar, with
whom she was in love, and by whom she had been seduced. Cato, after
reading it, threw it back to Caesar, saying:
Keep it, you
debauchee,
and then went on with his speech.Brutus, are you corrupted by bribes.
Brutus, are you dead?
or would that you were still alive!
or, your
posterity is unworthy of you,
or, you are not the descendant of that
Brutus.
These and many like incentives fired the young man to a deed like
that of his own ancestor.
While the talk about the kingship was going on, and just before there was to
be a meeting of the Senate, Cassius met Brutus, and, seizing him by the
hand, said, What shall we do in the senate-house if Caesar’s
flatterers propose a decree making him king?
Brutus replied that he would
not be there. Then Cassius asked him further, What if we are summoned there
as praetors, what shall we do then, my good Brutus?
I will
defend my country to the death,
he replied. Cassius embraced him, saying,
Which of the nobility will you allow to share your thought? Do you think
that artisans and shopkeepers have written those clandestine messages on
your tribunal, or rather the noblest Romans, those who ask from the other
praetors games, horse-races, and combats of wild beasts, but from
you liberty, as a boon worthy of your ancestry?
Thus did they disclose to
each other what they had been privately thinking about for a long time. Each
of them tested those of their own friends, and of Caesar’s also,
whom they considered the most courageous of either faction. Of their own
friends they inveigled two brothers, Caesilius and Bucolianus, and
besides these Rubrius Ruga, Quintus Ligarius, Marcus Spurius, Servilius
Casca, Servius Galba, Sextius Naso, and Pontius Aquila. These were of their
own faction. Of Caesar’s friends they secured Decimus Brutus, whom
I have already mentioned, also Gaius Casca, Trebonius, Tillius Cimber, and
Minucius Basillus.Of his other companions Brutus omitted Statilius
the Epicurean, and Favonius an adherent of Cato, because when he sounded
them in a roundabout way by conversing with them on philosophical
subjects, Favonius answered that a civil war was worse than an illegal
monarchy, and Statilius said that it was not the part of a wise man to
expose himself to danger and to stir up disorder for the sake of
worthless and foolish people.
(
When they thought that they had a sufficient number, and that it would not be wise to divulge the plot to any more, they pledged each other without oaths or sacrifices, yet no one changed his mind or betrayed the secret. They sought a time and place. Time was pressing because Caesar was to depart on his campaign four days hence and would thereupon have a body-guard of soldiers. They chose the Senate as the place, believing that, even though the senators did not know of it beforehand, they would join heartily when they saw the deed. It was said that this happened in the case of Romulus when he changed from a king to a tyrant. They thought that this deed, like that one of old, taking place in open Senate, would seem to be performed not by private plotters, but in behalf of the country, and that, being in the public interest, there would be no danger from Caesar’s army. At the same time they thought the honor would be theirs because the public would not be ignorant that they took the lead. For these reasons they unanimously chose the Senate as the place, but they were not agreed as to the mode. Some thought that Antony ought to be killed also because he was consul with Caesar, and was his most powerful friend, and the one of most repute with the army; but Brutus said that they would win the glory of tyrannicide from the death of Caesar alone, because that would be the killing of a king. If they should kill his friends also, the deed would be imputed to private enmity and to the Pompeian faction.
The day before the meeting of the Senate Caesar went to sup with
Lepidus, his master of horse, taking Decimus Brutus Albinus with him to the
drinking-bout.What is the best kind of death for a man?
Various opinions
were given, but Caesar alone expressed the preference for a sudden
death. In this way he foretold his own end, and conversed about what was to
happen on the morrow. After the banquet a certain bodily faintness came over
him in the night, and his wife, Calpurnia, had a dream, in which she saw him
streaming with blood, for which reason she tried to prevent him from going
out in the morning. When he offered sacrifice there were many unfavorable
signs. He was about to send Antony to dismiss the Senate when Decimus, who
was with him, persuaded him, in order not to incur the charge of disregard
for the Senate, to go there and dismiss it himself. Accordingly he was borne
thither in a litter. Games were going on in Pompey’s theatre, and the Senate
was about to assemble in one of the adjoining buildings, as was the custom
when the games were taking place.You kept the secret from me, although I am your friend, but
Brutus has told me all.
Casca was suddenly conscience-stricken and
shuddered, but his friend, smiling, continued, Where shall you get the
money to stand for the aedileship?
Then Casca recovered himself.
While Brutus and Cassius were conferring and talking together, Popillius
Laena, one of the senators, drew them aside and said that he joined
them in his prayers
While Caesar was being borne to the Senate one of his intimates, who
had learned of the conspiracy, ran to his house to tell what he knew. When
he arrived there and found only Calpurnia he merely said that he wanted to
speak to Caesar about urgent business, and then waited for him to
come back from the Senate, because he did not know all the particulars of
the affair. Meantime Artemidorus, whose hospitality Caesar had
enjoyed at Cnidus, ran to the Senate and found him already murdered. A
tablet informing him of the conspiracy was put into Caesar’s hand
by another person while he was sacrificing in front of the curia, but he
went in immediately and it was found in his hand after his death. Directly
after he stepped out of the litter Popillius Laena, who a little
before had joined his prayers with the party of Cassius, accosted
Caesar and engaged him aside in earnest conversation. The sight of
this proceeding and especially the length of the conversation struck terror
into the hearts of the conspirators, and they made signs to each other that
they would kill themselves rather than be captured. As the conversation was
prolonged they saw that Laena did not seem to be revealing anything
to Caesar, but rather to be urging some petition. They recovered
themselves and when they saw him return thanks to Caesar after the
conversation they took new courage. It was the custom of the magistrates,
when about to enter the Senate, to take the auspices at the entrance. Here
again Caesar’s first victim was without a heart, or, as some say,
the beginning of the entrails was wanting. A soothsayer said that this was a
sign of death. Caesar, laughing, said that the same thing had
happened to him when he was beginning his campaign against Pompeius in
Spain. The soothsayer replied that he had been in very great danger then and
that now the omen was still more entitled to credence.As
Caesar was entering the Senate for the last time, as I have
shortly before related, the same omens were observed, but he said
jestingly that the same thing happened to him in Spain. The soothsayer replied that he was in danger then and that the omen was now
The close resemblance
of the text of the two phrases suggested to Musgrave the query whether
Appian had not written the same in both places. Schweighäuser
thought that it was altogether probable, but as all the codices agreed
he did not venture to change the text. Mendelssohn has changed it in the
Teubner edition, while the Didot edition adheres to the original.
The conspirators had left Trebonius, one of their number, to engage Antony in
conversation at the door. The others, with concealed daggers, stood around
Caesar like friends as he sat in his chair. Then one of them,
Tillius Cimber, came up in front of him and petitioned him for the recall of
his brother, who had been banished. When Caesar answered that the
matter must be deferred, Cimber seized hold of his purple robe as though
still urging his petition, and pulled it away so as to expose his neck,
exclaiming, Friends, what are you waiting for?
Then first Casca, who was
standing over Caesar’s head, drove his dagger at his throat, but
missed his aim and wounded him in the breast. Caesar snatched his
toga from Cimber, seized Casca’s hand, sprang from his chair, turned around,
and hurled Casca with great violence. While he was in this position another
one stabbed him with a dagger in the side, which was exposed by his turning
around,which was in
a state of tension by reason of his turning and twisting.
The conspirators stood around him as he was seated, pretending
to pay their respects, and directly Tillius Cimber, who had assumed the
initiative, advanced nearer as if to ask some favor, and when
Caesar made a motion with his head to signify that the matter
must be deferred he seized his toga at both shoulders. Caesar
exclaimed
this is violence,
and then another of Casca’s party wounded
him in the back a little below the neck. Caesar seized Casca’s
arm and pierced it with a stylus, and while trying to rush forward was
hindered by another wound. When he saw himself assailed on all sides
with drawn daggers he drew his toga around his head and at the same time
with his left hand arranged the fold over his lower limbs so that he
might fall more decently, with the lower part of his body covered. In
this way he was stabbed with twenty-three wounds, having uttered no cry
but only a single groan at the first blow, although some say that when
Marcus Brutus attacked him he exclaimed
When the murderers had perpetrated their crime, in a sacred place, on one
whose person was sacred and inviolable,
those into whose hands they fell. Gladiators, who had been armed early in the
morning for that day’s spectacles, ran out of the theatre into the balcony
of the Senate. The theatre itself was emptied in haste and panic-terror, and
the markets were plundered. All citizens closed their front doors and put
themselves in a posture of defence on their roofs. Antony fortified his
house, apprehending that the conspiracy was against him as well as
Caesar. Lepidus, the master of horse, being in the forum at the
time, learned what had been done and ran to the island in the river where he
had a legion of soldiers, which he transferred to the plain in order to be
in greater readiness to execute Antony’s orders; for he yielded to Antony as
a closer friend of Caesar and also as consul. While pondering over
the matter they were strongly moved to avenge the death of Caesar,
but they feared lest the Senate should espouse the side of the murderers and
so they concluded to await events. There had been no military guard around
Caesar, for he did not like guards except the usual attendants of
the magistracy. Many civilian officers and a large crowd of citizens and
strangers, of slaves and freedmen, had accompanied him from his house to the
Senate, but had fled
The murderers wished to make a speech in the Senate, but as nobody remained there they wrapped their togas around their left arms to serve as shields, and, with swords still reeking with blood, ran, crying out that they had slain a king and tyrant. One of them bore a cap on the end of a spear as a symbol of freedom and exhorted the people to restore the government of their fathers and recall the memory of the elder Brutus and of those who took the oath together against the ancient kings. With them ran some with drawn swords who had not participated in the deed, but wanted to share the glory, among whom were Lentulus Spinther, Favonius, Aquinus, Dolabella, Murcus, and Patiscus. These did not share the glory, but they suffered punishment with the guilty. As the people did not flock to them they were disconcerted and alarmed. Although the Senate had at first fled through ignorance and alarm, they had confidence in it nevertheless as being their own relatives and friends, and oppressed equally with themselves by the tyranny. They had apprehensions of the plebeians and of Caesar’s soldiers, many of whom were then present in the city, some lately dismissed from the service and to whom lands had been allotted; others who had been already settled, but had come in to serve as an escort for Caesar on his departure from the city. The assassins had fears of Lepidus, too, and of the army under him in the city, and also of Antony in his character as consul, lest he should consult the people alone, instead of the Senate, and bring some fearful punishment upon them.
In this frame of mind they hastened up to the Capitol with their gladiators.
There they took counsel and decided to bribe the populace, hoping that if
some would begin to praise the deed others would join in from love of
liberty and longing for the republic. They thought that the Roman people
were still exactly the same as they had heard that they were at the time
when the elder Brutus expelled the kings. They did not perceive that they
were counting on two incompatible things, namely, that people could be
lovers of liberty and bribe-takers at the same time. The latter class were
much easier to find of the two, because the government had been corrupt for
a long time. The plebeians were now much mixed with foreign blood, freedmen
had equal rights of citizenship with them, and slaves were dressed in the
same fashion as their masters. Except in the case of the senatorial rank the
same costume was common to slaves and to free citizens. Moreover the
distribution of corn to the poor, which took place in Rome only, drew
thither the lazy, the beggars, the vagrants of all Italy. The multitude of
discharged soldiers no longer returned one by one to their native places as
formerly, fearing that some of them might be accused of having engaged in
iniquitous wars,
From so many men of this kind a considerable crowd was drawn speedily and
without difficulty to the party of Cassius in the forum. These, although
bought, did not dare to praise the murder, because they feared
Caesar’s reputation and doubted what course the rest of the people
might take. So they shouted for peace as being for the public advantage, and
with one accord recommended this policy to the magistrates, intending by
this device to secure the safety of the murderers;was a device of the murderers themselves.
which is not unlikely, but it presents grammatical difficulties which
led Schweighäuser to change the word
But after Dolabella,
After they had thus spoken Cassius and Brutus returned directly to the
Capitol, because they had not yet entire confidence in the present posture
of affairs. Having first enabled their friends and relatives to come to them
in the temple, they chose from among them messengers to treat on their
behalf with Lepidus and Antony for conciliation and the preservation of
liberty, and for warding off the evils that would befall the country if they
should not come to an agreement. This the messengers asked, not extolling
the deed that had been done, however, for they did not dare to do this in
the presence of Caesar’s friends. They asked that it be tolerated
now that it was done, out of pity for the perpetrators (who had been
actuated, not by hatred toward Caesar, but by love of country), and
out of compassion for the city exhausted by long-continued civil strife, and
which a new sedition might deprive of the good men still remaining.
they
said, If enmity were entertained against certain persons,it would be an act of impiety to gratify it in a time of public
danger. It would be far preferable to sink private animosity in the public
weal, or, if anybody were irreconcilable, at least to postpone his private
grievances for the present.
Antony and Lepidus wished to avenge Caesar, as I have already said,
either on the score of friendship, or of the oaths they had sworn, or
because they were aiming at the supreme power themselves and thought that
their course would be easier if so many men of such rank were put out of the
way at once. But they feared the friends and relatives of these men and the
leaning of the rest of the Senate toward them, and especially they feared
Decimus Brutus, who had been chosen by Caesar governor of Cisalpine
Gaul, which had a large army. So they decided to watch a future opportunity
and to try if possible to draw over to themselves the army of Decimus, which
was already disheartened by its protracted labors. Having come to this
decision, Antony replied to the messengers, We shall do nothing from
private enmity, yet in consequence of the crime and of the oaths we have all
sworn to Caesar, that we would either protect his person or avenge
his death, a solemn regard for our oath requires us to drive out the guilty
and to live with a smaller number of innocent men rather than that all
should be liable to the divine curse. Yet for our own part, although this
seems to us the proper course, we will consider the matter with you in the
Senate and we will agree to whatever may be decided in common to be
propitious for the city.
Thus did Antony make a safe answer. The messengers returned their thanks and went away full of hope, for they had entire confidence that the Senate would cooperate with them. Antony ordered the magistrates to have the city watched by night, stationing guards at intervals as in the daytime, and he had fires lighted throughout the city. By this means the friends of the murderers were enabled to traverse the city the whole night, going to the houses of the senators and beseeching them in behalf of these men and of the republic. On the other hand, the leaders of the colonized soldiers ran about uttering threats lest they should fail to hold the lands set apart, either already assigned or proclaimed to them. And now the more honest citizens began to recover courage when they learned how small was the number of the conspirators, and when they remembered Caesar’s merits they became much divided in opinion. That same night Caesar’s money and his official papers were transferred to Antony’s house, either because Calpurnia thought that they would be safer there or because Antony ordered it.
While these things were taking place Antony, by means of a notice sent around by night, called the Senate to meet before daybreak at the temple of Tellus, which was very near his own house, because he did not dare to go to the senate-house situated just below the Capitol, where the gladiators were aiding the conspirators, nor did he wish to disturb the city by bringing in the army. Lepidus, however, did that. As daylight was approaching the senators assembled at the temple of Tellus, including the praetor Cinna, clothed again in the robe of office which he had cast off the previous day as the gift of a tyrant. Some of the unbribed people and some of Caesar’s veterans, when they saw him, were indignant that he, although a relative of Caesar, should have been the first to slander him in a public speech, threw stones at him, pursued him, and when he had taken refuge in a house brought fagots and were about to set it on fire when Lepidus came up with his soldiers and stopped them. This was the first decided expression of opinion in favor of Caesar. The hirelings, and the murderers themselves, were alarmed by it.
In the Senate only a small number were free from sympathy with the act of violence and indignant at the murder. Most of them sought to aid the murderers in various ways. They proposed first to invite them to be present under a pledge of safety and sit in council with them, thus changing them from criminals to judges. Antony did not oppose this because he knew they would not come; and they did not come. Then, in order to test the feeling of the Senate, some of them extolled the deed openly and without disguise, called the men tyrannicides, and proposed that they should be rewarded. Others were opposed to giving rewards, saying that the men did not want them and had not done the deed for the sake of reward, but thought that they should merely be thanked as public benefactors. Still others were opposed to thanking them and thought that it would be sufficient to grant them impunity. Such were the devices to which they resorted, and were trying to discover which of these courses the Senate would be inclined to accept first, hoping that after a little that body would be more easily led on by them to the other measures. The honester portion revolted at the murder as impious, but out of respect for the great families of the murderers would not oppose the granting of impunity, yet they were indignant at the proposal to honor them as public benefactors. Others argued that if impunity were granted it would not be fitting to refuse the most ample means of safety. When one speaker said that honoring them would be dishonoring Caesar, it was answered that it was not permissible to prefer the interests of the dead to those of the living. Another having said plainly that one of two things must be decided beforehand — either that Caesar was a tyrant or that his murderers were to be pardoned as an act of clemency — the others [Caesar’s enemies] seized upon this simple proposition and asked that an opportunity be given them of expressing themselves by vote concerning the character of Caesar, under the solemn pledge that, if they voluntarily should give their unbiased judgment, the penalty of the oath should not befall them for having previously voted Caesar’s decrees under compulsion — never willingly and never until they were in fear for their own lives, after the killing of Pompey and of numberless others besides Pompey.
When Antony, who had been looking on and waiting, saw that sufficient
material for discussion had been introduced which was not open to dispute,
he resolved to balk their scheme by exciting fear and anxiety for
themselves. Seeing a great number of these senators themselves who had been
designated by Caesar for city magistracies, priestly offices, and
the command of provinces and armies (for, as he was going on a long
expedition, he had appointed them for five years), Antony proclaimed silence
as consul and said: Those who are asking for a vote on the character of
Caesar ought to consider in the first place that all the things
done and decreed under his government and while he was the chosen ruler of
the state remain in full force. If it is decided that he usurped the
government by violence, his body should be cast out unburied and all his
acts annulled. These acts, to speak briefly, embrace the whole earth and
sea, and most of them will stand whether we like them or not, as I shall
presently show. Those things which alone belong to us to decide, because
they concern us alone, I will propose to you first, so that you may gain a
conception of the more difficult questions from a consideration of the
easier ones. Almost all of us have held office under Caesar; or do
so still, having been chosen thereto by him; or will do so soon, having been
designated in advance by him; for, as you know, he had disposed of the city
offices, the yearly magistracies, and the command of provinces and armies
for five years. If you are willing to resign these offices (for this is
entirely in your power), I will put that question to you first and then I
will take up the remaining ones.
Having lighted this kind of a firebrand among them, not in reference to
Caesar, but to themselves, Antony relapsed into silence. They rose
immediately
While affairs were proceeding thus, Antony and Lepidus went out of the
Senate, having been called for by a crowd that had been assembling for some
time. When they were perceived in an elevated place, and the shouters had
been with difficulty silenced, one of their number, either of his own
volition or because he was prompted, called out, Have a care lest you
suffer a like fate.
Antony loosened his tunic and showed him a coat-of-mail
inside, thus exciting the beholders, as though it were impossible even for
consuls to be safe without arms. Some cried out that the deed must be
avenged, but a greater number demanded peace. To those who called for peace
Antony said, That is what we are striving for, that it may come and be
permanent, but it is hard to get security for it when so many oaths and
solemnities were of no avail in the case of Caesar.
Then, turning
to those who demanded vengeance, he praised them as more observant of the
obligations of oaths and religion, and added, I myself would join you and
would be the first to call for vengeance if I were not the consul, who must
care for what is called expedient rather than for what is just. So these
people who are inside tell us. So Caesar himself perhaps thought
when, for the good of the country, he spared those citizens whom he captured
in war, and was slain by them.
When Antony had in this way worked upon both parties by turns, those who
wanted to have vengeance on the murderers asked Lepidus to execute it. As
Lepidus was about to speak those who were standing at a distance asked him
to go down to the forum where all could hear him equally well. So he went
directly there, thinking that the crowd was now changing its mind, and when
he had taken his place on the rostra he groaned and wept in plain sight for
some time. Then recovering himself, he said, Yesterday I stood with
Caesar here, where now I am com- pelled to ask what you wish me to
do about his murder.
Many cried out Avenge Caesar.
The hirelings
shouted on the other side, Peace for the republic.
To the latter he
replied, Agreed, but what kind of a peace do you mean? By what sort of
oaths shall it be confirmed? We all swore the national oaths to
Caesar and we have trampled on them — we who are considered the
most distinguished of the oath-takers.
Then, turning to those who called
for vengeance, he said, Caesar, that truly sacred and revered man,
has gone from us, but we hesitate to deprive the republic of those who still
remain. Our conscript fathers,
he added, are considering these matters,
and this is the opinion of most of them.
They shouted again, Avenge him
yourself.
I would like to,
he replied, and it is right that I should do
it even alone, but it is not fitting that you and I should wish to do it
alone, or alone set ourselves up against them.
While Lepidus was employing such devices the hirelings, who knew that he was
ambitious, praised him and offered him Caesar’s place as pontifex
maximus. He was delighted. Mention this to me later,
he said, if you
consider me worthy of it,
whereupon the mercenaries, encouraged by their
offer of the priesthood, insisted still more strongly on peace. Although it
is contrary to religion and law,
he said, I will do what you wish.
So
saying he returned to the Senate, where Dolabella had consumed all the
intervening time in unseemly talk about his own office. Antony, who was
waiting to see what the people would do, looked at Dolabella with derision,
for the two were at variance with each other. After enjoying the spectacle
sufficiently and perceiving that the people would not do anything rashly, he
decided, under compulsion, to extend protection to the murderers (concealing
the necessity, however, and pretending to act in this way as a matter of the
greatest favor), and at the same time to have Caesar’s acts
ratified and his plans carried into effect by common agreement. Accordingly
he commanded silence again and spoke as follows:—
Fellow-citizens, while you have been considering the case of the offenders I
have not joined in the debate. When you called for a vote on Caesar
instead of on them, I had brought forward, until this moment, only one of
Caesar’s acts. This one threw you into these many present
controversies, and not without reason, for if we resign our offices we shall
confess that we (so many and of such high rank as we are) came by them
undeservedly. Consider the matters that cannot be easily controlled by us.
Reckon them up by cities and provinces, by kings and princes. Almost all of
these, from the rising to the setting sun, Caesar either subdued
for us by force and arms, or organized by his laws, or confirmed in their
allegiance by his favors and kindness. Which of these powers do you think
will consent to be deprived of what they have received, unless you mean to
fill the world with new wars — you who propose to spare these wretches for
the sake of your exhausted country? But, omitting the more distant dangers
and apprehensions, we have others not only near at hand, but even of our own
household throughout Italy itself,— men who are here after receiving the
rewards of victory, many of them with arms in their hands and in the same
organization in which they fought, men assigned to colonies by
Caesar (many thousands of whom are still in the city), — what
think you they will do if they are deprived of what they have received, or
expect to receive, in town and country? The past night showed you a sample.
They were coursing the streets with threats against you who were
supplicating in behalf of the murderers.
Think you that Caesar’s fellow-soldiers will allow his body to be
dragged through the streets, dishonored, and cast away unburied — for our
laws prescribe such treatment for tyrants? Will they consider the rewards
they have received for their victories in Gaul and Britain secure, when he
who gave them is treated with contumely? What will the Roman people
themselves do? What the Italians? What ill-will of gods and men will attend
you if you put ignominy upon one who advanced your dominion to shores of the
ocean hitherto unknown? Will not such fickleness on our part be held in
greater reprobation and condemnation if we vote to confer honor on those who
have slain a consul in the senate-house, an inviolable man in a sacred
place, in full senate, under the eyes of the gods, and if we dishonor one
whom even our enemies honor for his bravery? I warn you to abstain from
these proceedings as being sacrilegious in themselves and not in our power.
I move that all the acts and intentions of Caesar be ratified and
that the authors of the crime be by no means applauded (for that would be
neither pious, nor just, nor consistent with the ratification of
Caesar’s acts). Let them be spared, if you please, as an act of
clemency only, for the sake of their families and friends, if the latter
will accept it in this sense in behalf of the murderers and acknowledge it
in the light of a favor.
When Antony had said these things with intense feeling and impetuosity, all
the others remaining silent and agreeing, the following decree was passed:
There shall be no prosecution for the murder of Caesar, but all of
his acts and decrees are confirmed, because this policy is deemed
advantageous to the commonwealth.
The friends of the murderers insisted
that those last words should be added for their security, implying that
Caesar’s acts were confirmed as a measure of utility and not of
justice; and in this matter Antony yielded to them. When this decree had
been voted the leaders of the colonists who were present asked for another
act special to themselves, in addition to the general one, in order to
confirm their colonies. Antony did not oppose this, but rather intimidated
the Senate to pass it. So this was adopted, and another like it concerning
the colonists who had been already sent out. The Senate was thereupon
dismissed, and a number of senators collected around Lucius Piso, whom
Caesar had made the custodian of his willAt the instance of Lucius Piso, his father-in-law, Caesar’s
will was opened and read in the house of Antony, which will he had made
on the preceding ides of September, in his Lavican villa, and had
deposited with the eldest of the Vestal virgins. Quintus Tubero relates
that Pompey had been constantly made his heir in the wills written by
him from his first consulship to the beginning of the civil war, and
that this fact was publicly made known to the army. In his latest will
he made the three grandsons of his sisters his heirs, giving to Gaius
Octavius three-fourths and to Lucius Pinarius and Quintus Pedius the
remaining fourth.
(
Then Piso called out with a loud voice and demanded that the consuls should
reconvene the senators, who were still present, which was done, and then he
said: These men who talk of having killed a tyrant are already so many
tyrants over us in place of one. They forbid the burying of a Pontifex
Maximus and they threaten me when I produce his will. Moreover, they intend
to confiscate his property as that of a tyrant. They have ratified
Caesar’s acts as regards themselves, but they annul those which
relate to him. It is no longer Brutus or Cassius who do this, but those who
instigated them to the murder.
This speech
excited clamor and indignation on all sides, and especially among those who
hoped that they should obtain something from the will. It was decreed that
the will should be read in public and that Caesar should have a
public funeral. Thereupon the Senate adjourned. Those who have hurled Brutus and Cassius into the abyss,
an
error due perhaps to a hasty reading of the last word and deriving it
from
When Brutus and Cassius learned what had been done they sent messengers to
the plebeians, whom they invited to come up to them at the Capitol.
Presently a large number came together and Brutus addressed them as follows:
Here, citizens, we meet you, we who yesterday met together with you in the
forum. We have come hither, not as taking refuge in a sanctuary (for we have
done nothing wrong), nor in a citadel (for as regards our own affairs we
intrust ourselves to you), but the sudden and unexpected attack made upon
Cinna compelled us to do so. I know that our enemies accuse us of perjury
and say that we render a lasting peace difficult. What we have to reply to
these accusations we will say in your presence, citizens, with whose help we
shall do what remains to be done for the restoration of democratic
government. After Gaius Caesar advanced from Gaul with hostile arms
against his country, and Pompey, the most popular man among you, suffered as
he did, and after him a great number of other good citizens, who had been
driven into Africa and Spain, had perished, Caesar was naturally
apprehensive, although his power was firmly intrenched, and we granted him
amnesty at his request and confirmed it by oath. If he had required us to
swear not only to condone the past, but to be willing slaves for the future,
what would our present accusers have done? For my part I think that, being
Romans, they would have chosen to die many times rather than take an oath of
voluntary servitude.
If Caesar did no more against your liberty then are we perjured.
But if he restored to you neither the magistracies of the city nor those of
the provinces, neither the command of armies, the priestly offices, the
leadership of colonies, nor any other posts of honor; if he neither
consulted the Senate about anything nor asked the authority of the people,
but if Caesar’s command was all in all; if he was not even ever
satiated with our misfortunes as Sulla was (for Sulla, when he had destroyed
his enemies restored to you the government of the commonwealth, but
Caesar, as he was going away for another long military expedition,
anticipated by his appointments your elections for five years), what sort of
freedom was this in which not a ray of hope could be any longer discerned?
What shall I say of the defenders of the people, Caesetius and
Marullus? Were not the incumbents of a sacred and inviolable office
ignominiously banished? Although the law and the oath prescribed by our
ancestors forbid calling the tribunes to account during their term of
office, Caesar banished them even without a trial. Have
But what kind of an oath after this will be a guarantee of peace?
they
ask. If there is no tyrant there will be no need of oaths. Our fathers never
needed any. If anybody else seeks to establish tyranny, no faith, no oath,
will ever bind Romans to the tyrant. This we said before, while we were
still in danger; this we will continue to say forever for our country’s
sake. We, who held places of honor securely at the hands of Caesar,
had a higher regard for our country than for our offices. They slander us
about the colonies and so excite you against us. If there are any present
who have been settled in colonies, or are about to be settled, you will
gratify me by making yourselves known.
A large number did so, whereupon Brutus continued, Bravo, my men, you have
done well to come here with the others. You ought, since you receive due
honors and bounties from your country, to give her equal honor in return as
she sends you forth. The Roman people gave you to Caesar to fight
against the Gauls and Britons, and your valiant deeds call for recognition
and recompense. But Caesar, taking advantage of your military oath,
led you against your country much against your will. He led you against our
best citizens in Africa, in like manner against your will. If this were all
that you had done you would perhaps be ashamed to ask reward for such
exploits, but since neither envy, nor time, nor the forgetfulness of men can
extinguish the glory of your deeds in Gaul and Britain, you shall have the
rewards due to them, such as the people gave to those who served in the army
of old, yet not by taking land from your unoffending fellow-citizens, nor by
dividing other people’s property with new-comers, nor by considering it
proper to requite your services by means of acts of injustice. When our
ancestors overcame their enemies they did not take from them all their land.
They shared it with them and colonized a portion of it with Roman soldiers,
who were to serve as guards over the vanquished. If the conquered territory
was not sufficient for the colonies, they added some of the public domain or
bought other land with the public money. In this way the people colonized
you without harm to anybody. But Sulla and Caesar, who invaded
their country like a foreign land and needed guards and garrisons against
their own country, did not dismiss you to your homes, nor buy land for you,
nor divide among you the property of citizens which they confiscated, nor
did they make compensation for the relief of those who were despoiled,
although those who despoiled them had plenty of money from the treasury and
plenty from confiscated estates. They took, by the law of war, — nay, by
the practice of robbery, — from Italians who had committed no offence, who
had done no wrong, their land and houses, tombs and temples, which we do not
take away even from foreign enemies, except a mere tenth of their produce by
way of tax.
They divided among you the property of your own people, the very ones who
sent you with Caesar to the Gallic war, and who offered up their
prayers at your festival of victory. They colonized you in that way
collectively, under your standards and in your military organization, so
that you could neither enjoy peace nor be free from fear of those whom you
displaced. The man who is driven out and deprived of his goods will always
be watching his opportunity to ensnare you. This was the very thing that the
tyrants sought to accomplish, — not to provide you with land, which they
could have obtained for you elsewhere; but that you, because always beset by
lurking enemies, might be the firm bulwark of a government that was
committing wrongs in common with you. A common interest between tyrants and
their satellites grows out of common crimes and common fears. And this, ye
gods, they call colonization, in which are common the lamentations of a
kindred people and the expulsion of innocent men from their homes. They
purposely made you enemies to your countrymen for their own advantage. We,
the defenders of the republic, to whom our opponents say they grant safety
out of pity, confirm this very same land to you and will confirm it forever;
and to this promise we call to witness the god of this temple.
While Brutus was still speaking in this sort, and after the assembly was dissolved, his discourse was approved by all as being entirely just. He and his associates were admired as men of intrepidity, and as peculiarly the friends of the people. The latter were favorably inclined toward them, and promised to coöperate with them on the following day. At daybreak the consuls called the people to an assembly and communicated to them the decisions of the Senate, and Cicero pronounced a long encomium on the decree of amnesty. The people were delighted with it and invited Cassius and his friends to come down from the Capitol. The latter asked that hostages be sent to them in the meantime, and, accordingly, the sons of Antony and Lepidus were sent. When Brutus and his associates made their appearance they were received with shouts of applause, and when the consuls desired to say something the people would not allow them to do so, but demanded that they should first shake hands with these men and make peace with them, which was done. The minds of the consuls were much disturbed by fear and envy lest the conspirators should get the upper hand of them in other political matters.
Caesar’s will was now produced and the people ordered that it be
read at once. In it Octavius, the grandson of his sister, was adopted by
Caesar. His gardens were given to the people as a place of
recreation, and to every Roman still living in the city he gave seventy-five
Attic drachmas.
It is not fitting, citizens, that the funeral oration of so great a man
should be pronounced by me alone, but rather by his whole country. The
decrees which all of us, in equal admiration of his merit, voted to him
while he was alive — the Senate and the people acting together — I will
read, so that I may voice your sentiments rather than my own.
Then he began
to read with a severe and gloomy countenance, pronouncing each sentence
distinctly and dwelling especially on those decrees which declared
Caesar to be superhuman, sacred, and inviolable, and which named
him the father of his country, or the benefactor, or the chieftain without a
peer. With each decree Antony turned his face and his hand toward
Caesar’s corpse, illustrating his discourse by his action, and at
each appellation he added some brief remark full of grief and indignation;
as, for example, where the decree spoke of Caesar as the father of
his country he added that this was a testimonial of his clemency; and again,
where he was made sacred and inviolable and everybody else was to be held
unharmed who should find refuge with him,— Nobody,
said Antony, who
found refuge with him was harmed, but he, whom you declared sacred and
inviolable, was killed, although he did not extort these honors from you as
a tyrant, and did not even ask for them. Most servile are we if we give such
honors to the unworthy who do not ask for them. But you, faithful citizens,
vindicate us from this charge of servility by paying such honors as you now
pay to the dead.
Antony resumed his reading and recited the oaths by which all were pledged to
guard Caesar and Caesar’s body with all their strength,
and all were devoted to perdition who should not avenge him against any
conspiracy. Here, lifting up his voice and extending his hand toward the
Capitol, he exclaimed, Jupiter, guardian of this city, and ye other gods, I
stand ready to avenge him as I have sworn and vowed, but since those who are
of equal rank with me have considered the decree of amnesty beneficial, I
pray that it may prove so.
A commotion arose among the senators in
consequence of this exclamation, which seemed to have special reference to
them. So Antony quieted them again and recanted, saying, It seems to me,
fellow-citizens, that this deed is not the work of human beings, but of some
evil spirit. It becomes us to consider the present rather than the past,
since the greatest danger approaches, if it is not already here, lest we be
drawn into our former civil commotions and lose whatever remains of noble
birth in the city. Let us then conduct this sacred one to the abode of the
blest, chanting our accustomed hymn of lamentation for him.
Having spoken thus,, he gathered up his garments like one inspired, girded
himself so that he might have the free use of his hands, took his position
in front of the bier as in a play, bending down to it and rising again, and
sang first as to a celestial deity. In order to testify to Caesar’s
godlike origin, he raised his hands to heaven and with rapid speech recited
his wars, his battles, his victories, the nations he had brought under his
country’s sway, and the spoils he had sent home, extolling each exploit as
miraculous, and all the time exclaiming, Thou alone hast come forth
unvanquished from all the battles thou hast fought. Thou alone hast avenged
thy country of the out-rage put upon it 300 years ago, bringing to their
knees those savage tribes, the only ones that ever broke into and burned the
city of Rome.
Many other things Antony said in a kind of divine frenzy, and
then lowered his voice from its high pitch to a sorrowful tone, and mourned
and wept as for a friend who had suffered unjustly, and prayed that his own
life might be given in exchange for Caesar’s. Carried away by
extreme passion he uncovered the body of Caesar, lifted his robe on
the point of a spear and shook it aloft, pierced with dagger-thrusts and red
with the dictator’s blood. Whereupon the people, like a chorus, mourned with
him in the most lugubrious manner, and from sorrow became again filled with
anger. After the discourse other lamentations were chanted with funeral
music according to the national custom, by the people in chorus, to the
dead; and his deeds and his sad fate were again recited. Somewhere from the
midst of these lamentations Caesar himself was supposed to speak,
recounting the benefits he had conferred on his enemies by name, and
speaking of the murderers themselves, exclaiming, as it were, Oh that I
should have spared these men to slay me.
Men’ servasse, ut essent qui me perderent!
While they were in this temper and were already near to violence, somebody
raised above the bier an image of Caesar himself made of wax.no rhetorical
fiction, but a fair representation both in manner and substance of the
actual harangue.
Cicero bore testimony to the effectiveness of Antony’s
discourse when he spoke of it in the second Philippic (36) as that
beautiful encomium, that mournful dirge, that appeal to passion.
adding: thou, thou I say, didst light the fire that half consumed his
body and burned down the house of L. Bellienus. Thou didst precipitate
upon our homes that mob of abandoned men, mostly slaves, whom we drove
back by force and violence.
The murderers fled from the city secretly. The people returned to
Caesar’s bier and bore it as a consecrated thing to the Capitol in
order to bury it in the temple and place it among the gods. Being prevented
from doing so by the priests, they placed it again in the forum where in the
olden time stood the palace of the kings of Rome. There they collected
together sticks of wood and benches, of which there were many in the forum,
and anything else they could find of that sort, for a funeral pile, throwing
on it the adornments of the procession, some of which were very costly. Some
of them cast their own crowns upon it and many military gifts. Then they set
fire to it, and the entire people remained by the funeral pile throughout
the night. There an altar was first erected,They afterward placed in the forum a solid column of
Numidian marble nearly twenty feet high and inscribed on it the words
(To the Father of his Country,
at which they continued for a long time
to offer sacrifice, to take vows, and to adjust controversies in which
the oath was taken in the name of Caesar.Oh, my admirable Dolabella,
he says, I
now call him mine, for believe me, I had some little doubt of him
before. The affair presents a great outlook. Over the rock! On the
cross! The column demolished, the place itself under contract to be
paved. Is it not heroic? He seems to me to have put an end to that
appearance of regret for Caesar which was hitherto spreading
from day to day, and becoming chronic, so that I feared lest it should
prove dangerous to our tyrant-killers.
(
So died Gaius Caesar on the so-called Ides of March, which
correspond nearly with the middle of the Greek month Anthesterion, which day
the soothsayer predicted that he should not survive. Caesar
jokingly said to him early in the morning, Well, the Ides have come,
and
the latter, nothing daunted, answered, But they are not past.
Despising
such prophecies, uttered with so much confidence by the soothsayer, and
other prodigies that I have previously mentioned, Caesar went on
his way and was killed, being fifty-six years of age.
The Adriatic Sea yielded to Caesar, becoming navigable and quiet in
mid-winter. He also crossed the western ocean to Britain, which had never
been attempted before, and he ordered his pilots to break their ships in
pieces by running them on the rocks of the British coast.
Their armies were equally zealous and devoted to both, and in battles they fought with the greatest ferocity, but were often disobedient and mutinous on account of the severity of their tasks. Yet they mourned and longed for their commanders when they were dead, and paid them divine honors. Both were well-formed and handsome in person, and both were descended from Jupiter, Alexander through Aeacus and Hercules, Caesar through Anchises and Venus. Both were as prompt to fight their adversaries as they were ready to make peace and grant pardon to the vanquished, and after pardon to confer benefits; for they desired only to conquer. Thus far let the parallel hold good, although they did not both start toward empire from the same footing; Alexander from the monarchy founded by Philip, Caesar from a private station, well born and illustrious indeed, but very short of money.
Both of them despised the prodigies relating to themselves, but they did not deal harshly with the sooth-sayers who predicted their death; for more than once the very same prodigies confronted both, pointing to the same end. Twice in the case of each the victims were without a liver, and the first time it indicated a doubtful danger. It happened to Alexander when he was among the Oxydracae and while he was leading his Macedonians in scaling the enemy’s wall. The ladder broke, leaving him alone on the top. Taking counsel of his courage, he leaped inside the town against his enemies, and was struck severely in the breast and on the neck by a very heavy club, so that he fell down, and was rescued with difficulty by the Macedonians, who broke down the gates in their alarm for him. It happened to Caesar in Spain while his army was in great fear of young Pompey, and hesitated to join battle. Caesar dashed in advance of all into the space between the armies, and received 200 darts on his shield until his army, moved by shame and fear for his safety, rushed forward and rescued him. Thus in the case of each the first victims without livers presaged danger of death; the second presaged death itself. As Peithagoras, the soothsayer, was inspecting the entrails, he told Apollodorus, who was in fear of Alexander and Hephestion, not to be afraid of them, because they would both be out of the way very soon. Hephestion died immediately, and Apollodorus, being apprehensive lest some conspiracy might exist against Alexander, communicated the prophecy to him. Alexander smiled, and asked Peithagoras himself what the prodigy meant. When the latter replied that it meant fatality, he smiled again. Nevertheless, he commended Apollodorus for his good-will and the soothsayer for his freedom of speech.
As Caesar was entering the Senate for the last time, as I have
shortly before related, the same omens were observed, but he said,
jestingly, that the same thing had happened to him in Spain. When the
soothsayer replied that he was in danger then too, and that the omen was now
more deadly, he yielded somewhat to the warning and sacrificed again, and
continued to do so until he became vexed with the priests for delaying him,
and went in and was killed. The same kind of thing happened to Alexander. As
he was returning from India to Babylon with his army, and was nearing the
latter place, the Chaldeans urged him to postpone his entrance for the
present. He replied with the iambic verse, He who guesses right is the best
prophet.
The Ides
have come
; and the same day he died. Thus both alike made light of the
prophecies concerning themselves, and were not angry at the soothsayers who
uttered them, yet they became the inevitable victims of the prophecies.
Both were students of the science and artsthe science of excellence,
which is by no means clear.
Nauck marks the last word doubtful.Both changes came into effect on the
first January 709 of the city (
(
I. THUS was Gaius Caesar, who had been foremost in extending the Roman sway, slain by his enemies and buried by the people. All of his murderers were brought to punishment. How the most distinguished of them were punished this book and the next one will show, and the other civil wars waged by the Romans will likewise be included in them.
The Senate blamed Antony for his funeral oration over Caesar, 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 Caesar, 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 Caesar 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 Caesar as governors for the following year, the former of Syria, and the latter of Macedonia. Being still city praetors, 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,getting on to his game.
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
Caesar opened his gardens to the people after he had made an
end of young Pompey in Spain, Herophilus, who was separated from
Caesar 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 Caesar 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).
(
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.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.
(and when it was read,
says Cicero, we
adopted his motion with the greatest enthusiasm and by another
(
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 Caesar. 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 Caesar, and all that he intended to do, should be ratified. The memoranda of Caesar’s intentions were in Antony’s possession, and Caesar’s secretary, Faberius, was obedient to him in every way since Caesar 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 Caesar’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 Caesar,
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 praetors
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.
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,
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 Caesar, 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.
Octavius, the son of the daughter of Caesar’s sister, had been
appointed master of Caesar’s horse for one year, for
Caesar at times made this a yearly office, passing it around among
his friends. Being still a young man, he had been sent by Caesar to
Apollonia on the Adriatic to be educated and trained in the art of war, so
that he might accompany Caesar 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
Caesar. 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
Caesar 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,or
would be punished.
This reading has been followed in the translation.
The Didot Latin version follows that of Schweighäuser, viz.:
whether the murderers had already been
punished by the people, or at least feared punishment.
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 Caesar 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 Caesar, 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 Caesar’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 Lupiae. 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 Caesar’s will and the decrees of the Senate, his relatives still cautioned him to beware of the enemies of Caesar, 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 Caesar, 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 Caesar’s son, he took courage, offered sacrifice, and immediately assumed the name of Caesar; 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 Caesar the son of Caesar, 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 Caesar’s son, some from friendship to Caesar, 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
Caesar, 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 Caesar’s
veterans, who had been distributed in colonies, flocked from their
settlements to greet the young man. They bewailed Caesar, 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 Caesar’s memoranda, and that many other things were
happening.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 Cumae to tell me that he was going to claim
his inheritance; but, as you say, he will have a lively time with
Antony.
(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 Caesar.
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.
(
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
Caesar, 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 Caesar’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 Caesar 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 Caesar, 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.
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 Caesar 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 Caesar. 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 praetor, he said that he accepted the adoption of Caesar; for it is a Roman custom that adoptions are confirmed by witnesses before the praetors. When the public scribes had taken down his declaration, Octavius went from the forum straightway to Antony. The latter was in the gardens that Caesar 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 Caesar 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 Caesar 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;
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.You
as consul ought to see what would be agreeable to the majority
(
The Didot version more
properly renders it
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 Caesar 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 Caesar, 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 Aeneas 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 Caesar 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
Caesar’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 Caesar 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
Caesar 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 Caesar 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,
Caesar 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
Caesar, 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 Caesar 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 Caesar, 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
Caesar’s will, though you agree with me that the family of the
Heraclidae 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
Caesar’s assets when we vote an investigation into these matters.
This will not be unjust to Caesar 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 Caesar,
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?
(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.
Feeling outraged by the many insulting things said by Antony, Octavius went
away, invoking his father repeatedly by name, and offered for sale all the
property which had come to him by the inheritance, at the same time
exhorting the people to stand by him. While this hasty action made manifest
Antony’s enmity toward him, and the Senate voted an immediate investigation
of the public accounts, most of them grew apprehensive of the young
Caesar’
In the meantime many persons brought lawsuits against Octavius for the
recovery of landed property, some making one claim and some another,
differing in other respects, but for the most part having this in common,
that it had been confiscated from persons who had been banished or put to
death by the proscription. These suits were brought before Antonius himself
or the other consul, Dolabella. If any were brought before other
magistrates, Octavius was worsted through Antony’s influence, although he
showed by the public records that the purchases had been made by his
father,at the public expense,
conceived that the word by the public
scribe.
He thinks also that
The games were now approaching, which Gaius Antonius, the brother of Antony,
was about to give in behalf of Brutus, the praetor, as he attended
also to the other duties of the praetorship which devolved on him
in the latter’s absence. Lavish expense was incurred in the preparations for
them, in the hope that the people, gratified by the spectacle, would recall
Brutus and Cassius. Octavius, on the other hand, intrigued against this
scheme, distributing the money derived from the sale of his property among
the head men of the tribes by turns, to be divided by them among the first
comers. He went around to the places where his property was on sale and
ordered the auctioneers to announce the lowest possible price for
everything, both on account of the uncertainty and danger of the lawsuits
still pending, and on account of his own zeal for the people,on account of
his own haste,
the people pities and praise him.
They showed their feelings clearly while Brutus’ games were in progress, lavish as these were. Although a certain number, who had been hired for the purpose, shouted that Brutus and Cassius should be recalled, and the rest of the spectators were thus wrought up to a feeling of pity for them, crowds ran in and stopped the games until the demand for their recall ceased. When Brutus and Cassius learned that Octavius had frustrated what they had hoped to obtain from the games, they decided to go to Syria and Macedonia, which had been theirs before these provinces were voted to Dolabella and Antony, and to seize them by force. When their intentions became known, Dolabella hastened to Syria, taking the province of Asia in his way in order to collect money there. Antony, thinking that he should soon need troops for his own purposes, conceived the idea of transferring to himself the army in Macedonia, which was composed of the very best material and was of large size (it consisted of six legions, besides a great number of archers and light-armed troops, much cavalry, and a corresponding amount of apparatus of all kinds), although it properly belonged to Dolabella, who had been intrusted with Syria and the war against the Parthians, because Caesar was about to use these forces against the Parthians. Antony wanted it especially because it was close at hand, and, by crossing the Adriatic, could be thrown at once into Italy.
Presently a rumor was noised about that the Getae, learning of
Caesar’s death, had made an incursion into Macedonia and were
ravaging it. Antony asked the Senate to give him an army in order to punish
them, saying that this army had been prepared by Caesar to be used
against the Getae before marching against the Parthians, and that
everything was now quiet on the Parthian frontier. The Senate distrusted the
rumor, and sent messengers to make inquiry. Antony, in order to dissipate
their fear and suspicion, proposed a decree that it should not be lawful for
anybody, for any cause whatever, to vote for a dictatorship, or to accept it
if offered. If anybody should disregard any of these provisions, he might be
killed with impunity by anybody who should meet him.having captured his hearers.
While these things were taking place at Rome, Cassius and Brutus were
collecting troops and money, and Trebonius, who was governor of the province
of Asia, was fortifying his towns for them. When Dolabella arrived,
Trebonius would not admit him to Pergamus or Smyrna, but allowed him, as
consul, to occupy a market-place outside the walls. When the latter attacked
the walls with fury, but accomplished nothing, Trebonius said that he would
be admitted to Ephesus. Dolabella started for Ephesus forthwith, and
Trebonius sent a force to follow him at a certain distance. While these were
observing Dolabella’s march, they were overtaken by night, and, having no
farther suspicions, returned to Smyrna, leaving a few of their number to
follow him. Dolabella laid an ambush for this small number, captured and
killed them, and went back the same night to Smyrna. Finding it unguarded,
he took it by escalade. Trebonius, who was captured in bed, told his captors
to lead the way to Dolabella, saying that he was willing to follow them. One
of the centurions answered him facetiously, Go where you please, but you
must leave your head behind, for we are ordered to bring your head, not
yourself.
With these words the centurion immediately cut off his head, and
early in the morning Dolabella ordered it to be displayed on the
praetor’s chair where Trebonius was accustomed to transact public
business. Since Trebonius had participated in the murder of Caesar
by detaining Antony in conversation at the door of the senate-house while
the others killed him, the soldiers and camp-followers fell upon the rest of
his body with fury and treated it with every kind of indignity. They rolled
his head from one to another in sport along the city pavements like a ball
till it was completely crushed. This was the first of the murderers who was
visited with such punishment.was
not willing to put his captive to death at once, lest, as I think, he
should seem to be too moderate in his victory. After heaping every kind
of insult from his foul mouth on this excellent man he questioned him
under the scourge and torture about the public money — did this for two
days. After cutting his head from his shoulders he commanded that it be
carried on a pike. The rest of his body was dragged about, mangled, and
cast into the sea.
(
Antony conceived the idea of bringing his army from Macedonia to Italy; and being in want of any other pretext for this step he asked the Senate to let him exchange the province of Macedonia for that of Cisalpine Gaul, which was under the command of Decimus Brutus Albinus. He remembered that Caesar had marched from the latter province when he overthrew Pompey and he thought that he should appear to be transferring his army to Gaul and not to Italy. The Senate, which looked upon Cisalpine Gaul as its own fortress, was angry, and now for the first time perceived the stratagem and repented having given him Macedonia. The principal members sent word privately to Decimus to keep a strong hold on his province, and to raise additional troops and money lest he should be overpowered by Antony, so much did they fear and hate the latter. Antony then bethought him to ask the people, instead of the Senate, for this province by a law, in the same manner that Caesar had obtained it at a former time and Dolabella had recently obtained Syria. In order to intimidate the Senate he ordered his brother, Gaius, to bring his army across the Adriatic to Brundusium; and the latter proceeded to do as he was directed.
This was the time for the games that the aedile Critonius was about
to exhibit, and Octavius made preparations to display his father’s gilded
throne and crown, which the Senate had voted should be placed in front for
him at all games. When Critonius said that he could not allow
Caesar to be honored in this way at games given at his expense,
Octavius brought him before Antony as consul. Antony said he would refer the
matter to the Senate. Octavius was vexed and said, Refer it; I will place
the throne there as long as the decree is in force.
Antony was angry and
prohibited it. He prohibited it still more unreasonably in the next games
given by Octavius himself, which had been instituted by his father in honor
of Venus Genetrix when he dedicated a temple to her in a forum, together
with the forum itself. It was evident that universal hatred of Antony had
already grown out of this affair, since he seemed to be moved not so much by
a feeling of rivalry toward the younger Caesar as by an ungrateful
purpose to insult the memory of the elder one. Octavius himself, with a
crowd of people like a body-guard, moved about among the plebeians and those
who had received benefits from his father, or had served under him in war,
stirring their anger and beseeching them not to despise him, the victim of
so many and so great outrages, nor willingly desert him, but to defend
Caesar, their commander and benefactor, dishonored by Antony; to
defend him for their own sakes, because they would never be secure in what
they had received from Caesar unless the decrees passed in his
honor should remain in full force. He exclaimed against Antony everywhere
throughout the city, and especially from the high places that he came to,
saying, O Antony, do not be angry with Caesar on my account. Do
not insult one who has been the greatest benefactor to you. Heap indignities
on me to your heart’s content. Cease plundering his property until the
legacy to the citizens is paid; then take all the rest. However poor I may
be, my father’s glory, if that remains, and the distribution to the people,
if you will allow it to be made, will be all-sufficient for me.
Henceforth there were open and repeated outcries against Antony on all sides. The latter indulged in severer threats against Octavius, and when they became known the people were still more incensed against him. The tribunes of Antony’s guard, who had served under the elder Caesar, and who were then in the highest favor with Antony, urged him to refrain from insult, both on their account and on his own, as he had served under Caesar and had obtained his present good fortune at Caesar’s hands. Antony, recognizing the truth of these words, and feeling a sense of shame before those who uttered them and needing some help from Octavius himself, with the people, to procure the exchange of provinces, agreed with what they said and swore that what he had done had been quite contrary to his intention, but that he had been compelled to change his purpose because the young man was inordinately puffed up, being still a youth and showing no respect for his elders and no honor for those in authority. Although for his own benefit the young man still needed reproof, yet in deference to their remonstrances he would restrain his anger and return to his former disposition and intention if Octavius, also, would curb his presumption.
The tribunes were delighted with this reply and they brought Antony and
Octavius together, who, after some mutual chiding, formed an alliance. The
law concerning Cisalpine Gaul was proposed at once to the great dismay of
the senators. They intended, if Antony should first bring the law before
them, to reject it, and if he should bring it before the popular assembly
without consulting them, to have the tribunes of the people veto it. There
were some who advised that this province be made free altogether, so much
was it dreaded on account of its nearness. Antony, on the other hand,
accused them of intrusting it to Decimus because he had been one of
Caesar’s murderers and of having no confidence in himself because
he had not joined in killing the man who had subdued the province and
brought it to its kneescenturies
and
tribes,
and this change is adopted in the Teubner text.
One of the tribunes of the people having died Octavius favored the election of Flaminius as his successor. The people thought that he was ambitious of this office for himself, but that he refrained from being a candidate because he was under age, and, accordingly, they proposed to cast their votes for him for tribune. The Senate begrudged him this increase of power, fearing lest, as tribune, he should bring the murderers of his father before the popular assembly for trial. Antony, in disregard of his recent alliance with Octavius, either to curry favor with the Senate, or to appease its dissatisfaction with the law respecting Cisalpine Gaul, or for private reasons, gave public notice, as consul, that Octavius should not solicit votes contrary to law; and that if he should do so he (Antony) would use every means in his power against him. As this edict was an act of ingratitude toward Octavius, and was insulting both to him and to the people, the latter were extremely angry and took steps to defeat Antony’s wishes in the election, so that he became alarmed and annulled the comitia, saying that the remaining number of tribunes was sufficient. Octavius, thus at last openly attacked, sent numerous agents to the towns colonized by his father to tell how he had been treated and to learn the state of feeling in each. He also sent certain persons in the guise of traders into Antony’s camp to mingle with the soldiers, to work upon the boldest of them, and secretly distribute handbills among the rank and file.
While Octavius was doing this the military tribunes again sought an audience
with Antony and addressed him thus: We, O Antony, and the others who served
with you under Caesar, established his rule and continued to
maintain it from day to day as its faithful supporters. We know how his
murderers hate and conspire against us and how the Senate favors them. But
after the people drove them out we took fresh courage seeing that
Caesar’s acts were not altogether without friends, were not
forgotten, were not unappreciated. For our future security we put our trust
in you, the friend of Caesar, after him the most experienced of all
as a commander, our present leader, and the one most fit to be such. Our
enemies are starting up afresh. They have boldly seized Syria and
Macedonia
To the tribunes who had thus spoken Antony made the following reply: What
friendship and zeal I had for Caesar while he lived, what dangers I
braved in his service, you, who have been my fellow-soldiers and the sharers
in those events, know full well. What favors he showed me, what honors he
continually bestowed upon me, it does not become me to say. The murderers,
too, were acquainted with these facts. They conspired to kill me with
Caesar because they knew that if I were living they could not
compass their designs. Whoever dissuaded them from that purpose did so not
from regard for my safety, but to preserve the appearance of tyrannicide, so
that they might not seem to be killing a number of persons as enemies, but
only one as a despot. Who, then, will believe that I have no care for
Caesar, who was my benefactor, that I prefer his enemies, and that
I willingly condone his murder at the hands of those who conspired against
me also, as the young Caesar imagines? Whence came their amnesty,
whence their preferment? For he wishes to charge these things upon me
instead of the Senate. Learn from me how they came about.
When Caesar was suddenly slain in the senate-house fear fell upon
me most of all by reason of my friendship for him and my ignorance of the
facts, as I knew not the particulars of the conspiracy nor against whom it
was designed. The people were terror-stricken. The murderers with their
gladiators took possession of the Capitol and shut themselves up in it. The
Senate was on their side, just as it now is more openly, and was about to
vote rewards to them as tyrannicides. If Caesar were declared a
tyrant then might we all have perished as the friends of a tyrant. In the
midst of such confusion, anxiety, and fear, when it would not have been
surprising if I had been at a loss what to do, you will find, if you
examine, that where courage was needed I was boldest and where artifice was
required I was most crafty. The first thing to be done, because it embraced
everything else, was to prevent the voting of rewards to the conspirators.
This I accomplished against the strong opposition of the Senate and of the
murderers, with unfailing courage and in the face of danger, because I then
believed that we of Caesar’s party could be safe only in case
Caesar were not declared a tyrant. But when I saw our enemies, and
the Senate itself, plunged in the same fear (lest, if Caesar were
not decreed a tyrant, they themselves should be convicted of murder), and
making their fight, for this reason, I yielded and granted amnesty instead
of rewards to the murderers, in order to gain what I wanted in exchange.
What did I want and how important was it? That Caesar’s name should
not be blotted out was the dearest wish of all to me, that his property
should not be confiscated, that the adoption on which this young man prides
himself should not be annulled, that the will should not be declared
invalid, that his body should have a royal funeral, that the immortal honors
previously decreed to him should be fulfilled, that all his acts should be
confirmed, and that his son, and we his friends, both generals and soldiers,
should remain in perfect safety and enjoy a life of honor instead of
ignominy.
Think you that I asked few or small things from the Senate in exchange for
the amnesty, or that the Senate would have made these concessions without
the amnesty? If this exchange had been made in all sincerity it would have
been a fair bargain to actually spare the murderers for the sake of
Caesar’s immortal glory and our complete security, but in fact I
did it not with that intention, but in order to gain time.
postponing their
punishment.
While I was at a loss what to do, desiring to disarm our enemies and to arm
ourselves instead, I put Amatius to death and recalled Sextus Pompeius in
order to entrap the Senate again and bring it over to my side. But as even
then I had no confidence in it I persuaded Dolabella to ask for the province
of Syria, not from the Senate, but from the people by a law, and I favored
his petition so that he should become an enemy instead of a friend of the
murderers, and so that the senators should be ashamed to refuse me Macedonia
afterwards. Still, the Senate would not have assigned Macedonia to me, even
after Dolabella had been provided for, by reason of the army belonging to
it, if I had not previously transferred the army to Dolabella, as the war
against the Parthians fell to the lot of the one governing Syria. But they
would not have taken Macedonia and Syria away from Brutus and Cassius unless
other provinces had been obtained for them to ensure their safety. When it
became necessary to make them a recompense, look at the
After these events our enemies had raised another army and it became needful
for me to have the one in Macedonia; but I was in want of a pretext. A rumor
gained currency that the Getae were ravaging Macedonia. This was
disbelieved, and while messengers were sent to make inquiry I brought
forward the decree about the dictatorship, providing that it should not be
lawful to speak of it, to vote for it, or to accept it if offered. The
senators were particularly taken with this proposal and they gave me the
army. Then for the first time I considered myself on an equality with my
enemies, not merely with the open ones [as Octavius thinks],
Thus have we changed from the great fear that formerly beset us to a state
of entire safety for ourselves, where we can boldly face our foes. When
these facts became known the multitude showed their zeal against our
enemies. You see how the latter regret the decrees that have been passed and
what a fight they are making to deprive me of the Gallic province which has
already been given to me. You know what they have written to Decimus and how
they are urging my successors in the consulship to get the law relating to
this province changed. But with the help of our country’s gods, and with
pious intent, and by means of your valor, with which Caesar also
conquered, we will avenge him, devoting to that purpose our powers of body
and of mind.
attacking with the body and helping with the
mind.
Nauck would erase the word
These words of Antony convinced the tribunes that in all he had done he had
been moved by bitter animosity toward the murderers and that he had been
scheming against the Senate. Nevertheless they urged him to come to an
agreement with Octavius; and as both yielded they formed a new alliance in
the Capitol. Not long afterward Antony announced to his friends that some of
his body-guard had been tampered with by Octavius, who had formed a plot
against him. This he said either as a slander, or because he believed it to
be true, or because he had heard of the emissaries of Octavius in his camp
and thought they were actually plotting against his life. When this story
was noised about there was a general tumult forthwith and great indignation,
for there were few who had sufficient penetration to see that it was for the
interest of Octavius that Antony, even though he were unjust to him, should
live, because he (Antony) was a terror to the murderers. If he were dead
they would quite fearlessly dare anything, especially as they had the
support of the Senate. The more intelligent knew this, but the greater part,
seeing what Octavius suffered daily from the indignities and the losses
inflicted on him, considered the accusation not incredible, yet held it to
be impious and intolerable that a conspiracy should be formed against
Antony’s life while he was consul. Octavius ran with mad fury to those who
held this opinion of him, exclaiming that it was Antony that had conspired
against him to alienate from him the friendship of the people, which was the
only thing left to him. He ran to Antony’s door and repeated the same
things, calling the gods to witness, taking all kinds of oaths, and inviting
Antony to a judicial investigation. As nobody came forward he said, I will
accept your friends as judges.
With these words he attempted to enter the
house. Being prevented from doing so he again cried out and railed at Antony
and vented his wrath against the doorkeepers who restrained him from having
a dispute with Antony. Then he went away and called the people to witness
that if anything should happen to him his death would be due to Antony’s
plots. As these words were spoken with deep feeling the multitude underwent
a change, and a kind of penitence took the place of their former opinion.
There were some who still doubted, and hesitated to put faith in either of
them. Some accused them both of making false pretences, believing that they
had come to an agreement in the temple, and that these were plots devised
against their enemies. Still others thought that this was a device of Antony
to increase his body-guard. or to alienate the veterans from Octavius.At the
instigation of some of his friends he (Octavius) hired assassins to kill
him (Antony), but as the plot was discovered and he apprehended similar
danger to himself, he drew over the veteran troops to his own service
and that of the republic by as large a bribe as he could procure.
(a rumor prevailed that Octavius had formed a plot against Antony.
(
Presently news was brought to Octavius by his secret emissaries that the army
at Brundusium and the colonized soldiers were incensed against Antony for
neglecting to avenge the murder of Caesar, and that they would
assist him (Octavius) to do so if they could. For this reason Antony
departed to Brundusium. As Octavius feared lest Antony, returning with the
army, should catch him unprotected he went to Campania with money to enlist
the veterans who had been colonized in those towns by his father. He first
brought over those of Calatia and next those of Casilinum, two towns
situated on either side of Capua, giving 500 drachmas to each man. He
collected about 10,000 men, not fully armed and not mustered in regular
cohorts, but serving merely as a body-guard under one bannerI try to excuse myself,
says Cicero. I
cannot trust his youth, I do not know his real intentions. . . . I am
afraid of Antony’s power and unwilling to leave the coast, and at the
same time should be sorry to be absent in any crisis.
He wants Atticus
to advise him what to do. Velleius (ii. 61) mentions the enlistment of
these veterans at Calatia and Casilinum.
In this time of consternation Canutius, a tribune of the people and enemy of
Antony, and hence friendly to Octavius, went to meet the latter. Having
learned his intentions Canutius addressed the people, saying that Octavius
was advancing with real hostility to Antony and that those who were afraid
that Antony was aiming at tyranny should side with Octavius as they had no
other army at present. After speaking thus he brought in Octavius, who was
encamped before the city at the temple of Mars, fifteen stades distant. When
the latter arrived he proceeded to the temple of Castor and Pollux, which
his soldiers surrounded carrying concealed daggers. Canutius addressed the
people first, speaking against Antony. Octavius also reminded them of his
father and of what he had himself suffered at the hands of Antony, on
account of which he had enlisted this army as a guard for himself. He
declared himself the obedient servant of his country in all things, and said
that he was ready to confront Antony in the present emergency.that
the proscription began with the blood of the tribune and ended with that
of Cicero as though even Antony were now satisfied.
On the other hand,
Dion Cassius says that Canutius was captured by Octavius at Perusia and
put to death nearly three years later (xlviii. 14). Appian confirms this
(v. 49
After he had thus spoken and the assembly had been dissolved, the soldiers, taking the opposite view (that they had come to support the alliance of Antony and Octavius or as a mere guard for the latter and to punish the murderers), were vexed at the declaration of war against Antony, who had been their general and was now consul. Some of them asked leave to return home in order to arm themselves, saying that they could not perform their duty with other arms than their own. Others spoke out the truth. As things had turned out contrary to his expectation, Octavius was at a loss what to do. Hoping, however, to retain them by persuasion rather than by force he yielded to their requests, and sent some of them to get their arms and others simply to their homes. Concealing his disappointment he praised all of the assembled multitude, gave them new presents, and said that he would reward them still more generously, for he made use of them for emergencies rather as the friends of his father than as soldiers. After he had spoken these words, from 10,000 he influenced 1000 only to remain with him, or perhaps 3000, for accounts differ as to the number. The rest then took their departure, but presently they remembered the toils of agriculture and the gains of military service, the words of Octavius, his compliance with their wishes, and the favors they had received and hoped still to receive from him. And so, like the fickle multitude, they repented, and seizing upon their former pretext for the sake of appearances, they armed themselves and went back to him. Octavius had already proceeded with new supplies of money to Ravenna and the neighboring parts, enlisting new forces continually and sending them all to Arretium.
In the meantime four of the five Macedonian legions had joined Antony at
Brundusium. They blamed him because he had not proceeded against the
murderers of Caesar. They conducted him without applause to the
platform, implying that they required explanations on this subject first.
Antony was angry at their silence. He did not keep his temper, but charged
them with ingratitude in that they had expressed no thanks for being
transferred from the Parthian expedition to Italy. He blamed them because
they had not arrested and delivered to him the emissaries of a rash boy (for
so he called Octavius) who had been sent among them to stir up discord. But
he would find them out, he said. He would lead the army to the province
voted to him, the fair Gallic country, and would give 100 drachmas to each
man present. They laughed at his parsimony, and when he became angry they
broke out in tumult and went away. Antony rose and departed, saying, You
shall learn to obey orders.
Then he required the military tribunes to bring
before him the fomenters of the sedition (for it is customary in Roman
armies to keep at all times a record of the character of each man). From
these he chose by lot a certain number according to military law, and he put
to death not every tenth man, but a smaller number, thinking to strike
terror into the rest by means of the few. But the others were turned to rage
and hatred instead of fear by this act.What did his (Antony’s)
journey to Brundusium mean? Why such haste? What did he hope to do
unless to lead a great army to the city, or rather into the city ? Why
that casting of lots by the centurions and that fierce outbreak of
uncontrollable temper? When our bravest legions exclaimed against his
promises, he commanded those centurions to come to his house whose
strong attachment to the republic he was acquainted with, and there at
his own feet, and at the feet of his wife, whom this austere general
took with him to the army, he caused them to be killed.
These soldiers
were clearly mutineers, and Antony did not exceed his authority in
punishing them; but mutiny and going over to the enemy
were so common
at that time that each man measured the turpitude of the act by its
bearings on his own party.
In view of these facts the men whom Octavius had sent to tamper with the
soldiers distributed the greatest possible number of handbills throughout
the camp, reflecting on Antony’s stinginess and cruelty, recalling the
memory of the elder Caesar and urging them to share the service of
the younger one and his liberal gifts. Antony tried to find these emissaries
by means of rewards to informers and threats against those who abetted them,
but as he caught no one he became angry, believing that the soldiers
concealed them. When the news came of what Octavius was doing among the
colonized veterans and at Rome, he became alarmed, and going before the army
again he said that he was sorry for what he had been compelled by military
discipline to do to a few instead of the much larger number who were
punishable by law, and that they must know very well that Antony was neither
cruel nor stingy. Let us lay aside ill-will,
he continued, and rest
satisfied with these faults and punishments. The 100 drachmas which I have
ordered to be given you is not my donative, for that would be unworthy of
the fortune of Antony, but rather the salutation of our first meeting than a
full reward, but it is necessary to obey the laws of our country, and of the
army, in this affair
When he had thus spoken he
did not as yet add anything to the donative, that it might not seem that as
general he had yielded anything to the army. Whether moved by penitence or
by fear they took what was given them. Antony, being still angry at the
outbreak, or from some other suspicion, changed their tribunes. The
remainder he treated well because he had need of their services, and he sent
them forward by detachments along the sea-coast toward Ariminum.
Antony chose from the whole number a praetorian cohort of the men
who were best in body and character and marched to Rome, intending to push
on thence toward Ariminum. He entered the city in a haughty manner leaving
his squadron of horse encamped outside the walls. But the troops that
accompanied him were girded as for war, and they mounted guard over his
house at night under arms,Will it not
be advertised with the deepest shame, and by the records of our order,
to the memory of posterity, that since the foundation of the city Antony
alone had himself surrounded by armed men within its walls — something
that neither the kings, nor those who sought to exercise royal power
after their expulsion, ever did? I can remember Cinna; I have seen Sulla
and lately Caesar. These three men have been more powerful than
the whole republic at any time since the commonwealth was made free by
Lucius Brutus. I cannot affirm that their satellites were without arms,
but I can say that if they had any they were few and concealed, but a
whole troop of armed men followed this wretch.
It detracts somewhat
from the force of these words that for want of an armed guard
Caesar was murdered only a few months before, in the presence
of the very men to whom Cicero was speaking, and that Cicero applauded
the act.
While Antony was at Tibur nearly all the Senate, and the greater part of the
knights, and the most influential plebeians, came there to do him
honor.that pestilent
assemblage at Tibur,
but he makes it take place before the revolt of
the two legions. In the fifth Philippic (9) he says that when Antony
heard of the revolt of the legions just after he had convoked the
Senate, and procured a man of consular rank to propose that Octavius be
declared a public enemy, he immediately fainted away.
This is doubtful.
Antony was not one of the fainting kind, but Cicero was prone to
exaggeration.
Octavius had two legions equally efficient, which had deserted from Antony to
him, also one legion of new levies and two of discharged veterans, not
complete in numbers or in arms, but filled up with new recruits. He brought
them all to Alba and there communicated with the Senate, which congratulated
him in such a way that now one would have been at a loss to know who were
those who had lately ranged themselves with Antony; but it regretted that
the legions had not come over to the Senate itself instead of to him. It
praised them and Octavius nevertheless, and said that it would vote them
whatever was needful as soon as the new magistrates should enter upon their
duties. It was plain that the Senate would use these forces against Antony;
but having no army of its own anywhere, and being unable to levy one without
consuls, it adjourned all business until the new consuls should come
in.
The soldiers of Octavius furnished him lictors provided with fasces and urged
him to assume the title of propraetor, carrying on war and leading
themselves, since they were always marshalled under magistrates. He thanked
them for the honor, but referred the matter to the Senate. When they wanted
to go before the Senate and would do this all the
more,
he said, if they know of your zeal and my hesitation.
They were
reconciled to this course with difficulty. The leading officers complained
that he disdained them, and he explained to them that the Senate was moved
not so much by good-will toward him as by fear of Antony and the want of an
army; and that will be the case,
he continued, until we humble Antony,
and until the murderers, who are friends and relatives of the senators,
collect a military force for them. Knowing these facts I falsely pretend to
be serving them. Let us not be the first to expose this false pretence. If
we usurp the office they will accuse us of arrogance and violence, whereas
if we are modest they will probably give it of their own accord, fearing
lest I accept it from you.
After he had thus spoken he witnessed some
military exercises of the two legions that had deserted from Antony, who
ranged themselves opposite each other and gave a complete representation of
a battle, except only the killing. Octavius was delighted with the spectacle
and was pleased to make this a pretext for distributing 500 drachmas more to
each man, and he promised that in case of war he would give them 5000
drachmas each if they were victorious. Thus, by means of lavish gifts, did
Octavius bind these mercenaries to himself. Such was the course of events in
Italy.
In Cisalpine Gaul Antony ordered Decimus Brutus to withdraw to Macedonia in
obedience to the decree of the Roman people, and for his own good. Decimus,
in reply, sent him the letters that had been furnished him by the Senate, as
much as to say that he cared no more for the command of the people than
Antony did for that of the Senate. Antony then fixed a day for his
compliance, after which he should treat him as an enemy. Decimus advised him
to fix a later day lest he (Antony) should too soon make himself an enemy to
the Senate. Although Antony could have easily overcome him, as he was still
in the open country, he decided to proceed first against the cities. These
opened their gates to him. Decimus, fearing lest none of them should be
opened to him, fabricated letters from the Senate calling him to Rome with
his army and retired towards Italy, welcomed by all as he passed along,
until he arrived at the wealthy city of Mutina.
In Rome, at the beginning of the new year, the consuls, Hirtius and Pansa,
convened the Senate on the subject of Antony immediately after the
sacrifices had been
The Ciceronians heaped gross reproaches and insultsheaped reproaches and insults.
The first
three of these words are not in any printed text except that of
Mendelssohn, who finds them in the Vatican codex.
What decision ought to be reached concerning Antony we determined yesterday.
When we bestowed honors on his enemies we thereby voted him an enemy.
Salvius, who alone interrupted the proceedings, must either have been wiser
than all the rest, or moved to do so by private friendship, or by ignorance
of present circumstances. It would be most disgraceful to us, on the one
hand, if all should seem to know less than one, and to Salvius, on the other
hand, if he should prefer private friendship to the public weal. If he is
not well acquainted with the present circumstances he ought to repose
confidence in the consuls, rather than in himself, in the praetors,
in his fellow-tribunes, and the other senators, so imposing in dignity and
in numbers, so much his superiors in age and experience, who have condemned
Antony. In our elections and in our jury trials justice is ever on the side
of the majority. If it be needful still to acquaint him with the reasons for
our action I will briefly recount the principal ones by way of reminder. At
Caesar’s death Antony possessed himself of our money. Having been
invested with the government of Macedonia by us he seized upon that of
Cisalpine Gaul without our authority. Having received an army to operate
against the Thracians he brought it into Italy against us instead. Each of
these powers with his own secret motives he asked from us, and when they
were refused he acted on his own authority. At Brundusium he organized a
royal cohort for his own use and openly made men-at-arms his private guards
and night watchmen, serving under a countersign. The whole remainder of the
army he led from Brundusium to the city, aiming by a shorter path at the
same designs that Caesar contemplated. Being anticipated by the
younger Caesar and his army he became alarmed and turned his course
to the Gallic province as a convenient point of attack on us, just as
Caesar found it when he made himself our master.
In order to intimidate the soldiers to do every unlawful act he should
order, he decimated them although they had not revolted and had not
abandoned their watch or their ranks in time of war, for which offences
alone military law allows such cruel punishment, which only a few generals
have visited upon their soldiers and with reluctance, in cases of extreme
peril, as a matter of necessity. These citizens Antony put to death for a
word or a laugh when they had not been regularly condemned but chosen by
lot. For this reason those who could do so revolted from him, and you
yesterday voted them a donative as well-doers. Those who could not desert
joined him in wrong-doing under the influence of fear, marched against our
province as enemies, and besieged our army and our general, to whom you sent
letters directing him to hold the province. Antony now orders him to
evacuate it. Are we voting Antony an enemy, or is he already making war
against us? And these things our tribune is still ignorant of, and will
remain so until Decimus is overthrown and this great province on our border,
together with the army of Decimus, is added to the resources with which
Antony hopes to attack us. I suppose that the tribune will vote Antony an
enemy as soon as the latter becomes more powerful than we are.
Scarcely had Cicero finished speaking when his friends broke forth in such
tumultuous applause that for a long time nobody could be heard on the other
side, until finally Piso came forward, when the senators, out of respect for
him, became silent and even the Ciceronians restrained themselves. Then Piso
said: Our law, Conscript Fathers, requires that the accused shall himself
hear the charge preferred against him and shall be judged after he has made
his own defence; and for the truth of this I appeal to Cicero, our greatest
orator. Since he hesitates to accuse Antony when present, but brings against
him in his absence certain charges which he considers of the greatest
gravity, and not open to doubt, I have come forward to show, in the fewest
words, that these charges are false. He says that Antony converted the
public money to his own use after Caesar’s death. The law declares
such a person to be a thief, not a public enemy, and limits his punishment
accordingly. After Brutus had killed Caesar he accused the latter
before the people of plundering the public money and leaving the treasury
empty. Soon afterward Antony proposed a decree to investigate these matters
and you adopted and confirmed his motion and promised a reward of one-tenth
to informers, which reward we will double if anybody will prove that Antony
had any part in the fraud. So much for the charge in reference to money.
We did not vote the governorship of Cisalpine Gaul to Antony. The people
gave it to him by a law, Cicero being present; just as other provinces had
often been given, and as this same governorship had previously been given to
Caesar. It was a part of this law that, when Antony should arrive
at the province given to him, if Decimus would not yield it Antony should
declare war and lead the army into the Gallic province against him, instead
of using it against the Thracians, who were still quiet. But Cicero does not
consider Decimus, who is bearing arms against the law, an enemy, although he
considers Antony an enemy who is fighting in accordance with law. He who
accuses the law itself accuses the authors of the law, whom he ought to
change by persuasion, not to insult after having himself agreed with
them.
so that Jove himself seemed
to be prohibiting it by clamor from the skies,
but the approaches to
the forum were so fenced in that it would have been impossible to gain
entrance without tearing down the barricade even if no armed soldiers
had stood in the way.
But it is said that Antony put certain soldiers to death. Being
commander-in-chief he was empowered to do so by you. No commander has ever
rendered an account of such matters. The laws do not consider it expedient
that the general should be answerable to his soldiers. There is nothing
worse in an army than disobedience, on account of which some soldiers have
been put to death even after a victory, and no one called to account those
who killed them. None of their relatives complain now, but Cicero complains
and while accusing Antony of murder stigmatizes him as a public enemy,
instead of calling for the punishment prescribed for murderers. The
desertion of two of his legions shows how insubordinate and arrogant
Antony’s army was—which legions you had voted that he should command, and
who deserted, in violation of military law, not to you, but to Octavius.
Nevertheless Cicero praised them and yesterday proposed that they be paid
out of the public treasury. Heaven grant that this example may not plague
you hereafter. Hatred has betrayed Cicero into inconsistency, for he accused
Antony of aiming at supreme power and yet punishing his soldiers, whereas
such conspirators are always lenient, not severe, toward the men serving
under them. As Cicero does not hesitate to arraign as tyrannical all the
rest of Antony’s administration since Caesar’s death, come, let me
examine his acts one by one.
Whom has Antony put to death in a tyrannical manner without trial—he who is
now in danger of being condemned unheard? Whom has he banished from the
city? Whom has he slandered in our presence? Or, if innocent toward us
individually, has he conspired against all of us collectively? When, O
Cicero? Was it when he carried through the Senate the act of amnesty for the
past? Was it when he abstained from prosecuting anybody for the murder? Was
it when he moved an investigation of the public moneys? Was it when he
proposed the recall of Sextus Pompey, the son of your Pompey, and payment
for his father’s confiscated property out of the public treasury? Was it
when he seized that conspirator, the false Marius, and put him to death, and
you all applauded? And because you did so it was the only act of Antony that
Cicero did not calumniate. Was it when he brought in a decree that nobody
should ever propose a dictatorship, or vote for it, and that anybody
disobeying the decree might be killed with impunity by any one who wished?
These are the public acts that Antony performed for us during two months the
only months that he remained in the city after Caesar’s death, the
very time when the people were pursuing the murderers and you were
apprehensive of the future. If he were a villain what better opportunity
could he have had? But it is said that he was not in a condition to do
otherwise.
Since, in addition to charges, surmises are introduced to the effect that Antony was about to lead an army to the city, but became alarmed because Octavius had anticipated him with another army, how does it happen that when the mere intention to do this makes a man an enemy the one who actually comes and encamps alongside of us without authority is not considered an enemy? What would have prevented Antony from coming if he had wanted to? With 30,000 troops in line was he afraid of Octavius’ 3000, half-armed, unorganized, who had come together merely to gain his friendship, and who left him as soon as they knew that he had chosen them for war? If Antony was afraid to come with 30,000 how did he dare to come with only 1000? With these what a crowd of us accompanied him to Tibur! What a crowd of us voluntarily joined the soldiers in taking the oath of fidelity to him! What praises did Cicero lavish on his acts and virtues! If Antony himself contemplated any such thing [as invasion] why did he leave as pledges in our hands his mother, his wife, and his grown up son, who are even now at the door of the Senate weeping and fearful, not on account of what Antony has done, but on account of the overwhelming power of his enemies.
These facts furnish you an example of Antony’s defence and of Cicero’s
fickleness. I will add an exhortation to right-minded men, not to do
injustice to the people or to Antony, not to expose the public interests to
new enmities and dangers while the commonwealth is sick and in want of
timely defenders, but to establish a sufficient force in the city to ward
off danger before breeding disorder outside, to provide against attacks from
every quarter, and to come to such decisions as you please when you are able
to carry them into effect. How shall these ends be accomplished? By allowing
Antony, as a matter of policy, or for the sake of the people, to have
Cisalpine Gaul. Call Decimus thence with his three legions, and when he
comes send him to Macedonia, retaining his legions here. If the two legions
that deserted from Antony deserted to us, as Cicero says, let us summon them
also from Octavius to the city. Thus with five legions sustaining us we
might pass such decrees as we think best with entire confidence, depending
on the favor of no man.
I have addressed these words to men who listen to me without malice or the
spirit of contention. Those who would excite you heedlessly and
inconsiderately on account of private enmity and private strife I exhort not
to come to hasty and rash decisions against the most important personages,
who command strong armies, and not to force them into war against their
will. Remember Marcius Coriolanus. Recall the recent doings of
Caesar, whom we rashly voted an enemy while he was in like manner
leading an army and offering us the fairest terms of peace, whereby we
forced him to be an enemy in fact. Have regard for the people who were
lately pursuing Caesar’s murderers, lest we seem to insult them by
giving those murderers the governorship of provinces, by praising Decimus
for nullifying the people’s law, and by voting Antony an enemy because he
accepted the Gallic province from the people. For which reasons the
well-wishers of the country ought to take thought for the erring, and the
consuls and tribunes ought to be more than ever careful in view of the
public dangers.
Thus did Piso defend Antony, reproaching his enemies and alarming them. He
was evidently the cause of their not voting Antony an enemy. Nevertheless,
he did not succeed in securing for him the governorship of the Gallic
province. The friends and relatives of the murderers prevented it, fearing
lest, at the end of the war, Antony should join Octavius in avenging the
murder, for which reason they meant to keep Octavius and Antony always at
variance with each other. They voted to offer Antony Macedonia instead of
the Gallic province, and they ordered, either heedlessly or designedly, that
the other commands of the Senate be reduced to writing by Cicero and
delivered to the ambassadors. Cicero altered the decree and wrote as
follows: Antony must raise the siege of Mutina forthwith, relinquish
Cisalpine Gaul to Decimus, withdraw to the hither side of the river Rubicon
(which forms the boundary between Italy and the province) before a specified
day, and submit himself in all things to the Senate.
Thus provokingly and
falsely did Cicero write the orders of the Senate, not by reason of an
underlying hostility, as it seems, but at the instigation of some evil
spirit that was goading the republic to revolution and meditating
destruction to Cicero himself.
The ambassadors who had been sent to Antony, ashamed of the extraordinary
character of the orders, said nothing, but simply delivered them to him.
Antony in his wrath indulged in many invectives against the Senate and
Cicero. He was astonished,
he said, that they should consider
Caesar (the man who had contributed most to the Roman sway) a
tyrant and a king, and did not so consider Cicero, whom Caesar had
captured in war and whose life he had spared, while Cicero in return now
prefers Caesar’s assassins to his friends. He hated Decimus as long
as the latter was the friend of Caesar, but loves him now that he
has become his murderer. He favors a man who took the province of Gaul after
Caesar’s death without authority,
at the
hands of nobody.
In Secs. 49 and 50 we are told that Decimus held the
province by the authority of the Senate, and in Sec. 124, Bk. I, that he
had been designated as governor of the province by Caesar
himself, all of whose acts were subsequently, on Antony’s motion,
confirmed by the Senate.
After saying much more to the same purpose Antony wrote his reply to the
decree, saying that he would obey the Senate in all respects as the voice of
his country, but to Cicero, who wrote the orders, he would make the
following answer: The people gave me the province of Gaul by a law, and I
shall prosecute Decimus for not obeying the law, and I shall visit
punishment for the murder upon him alone, as representative of them all, in
order that the Senate, which now participates in the wickedness by reason of
Cicero’s support of Decimus, may at last be purged of the shocking crime.
These words Antony spoke and wrote in reply.
Thus quickly did the Senate seize the opportunity to put the affairs of
Cassius and his party in a brilliant aspect. When Octavius learned what had
been done he was troubled. He had considered the amnesty in the light of an
act of humanity and of pity for the relatives and compeers of these men, and
that the very small commands had been given them for their safety
merely;
Meditating thus to himself he performed the sacrifices appertaining to the
command assigned to him, and said to his army: I owe these honors of mine
to you, fellow-soldiers, not now merely but from the time when you gave me
the command; for the Senate conferred them upon me on account of you. Know,
therefore, that my gratitude will be due to you for these things, and that
it will be expressed to you abundantly if the gods grant success to our
undertakings.
In this way he conciliated the soldiers and attached them to
himself. In the meantime, Pansa, one of the consuls, was collecting recruits
throughout Italy, and the other one, Hirtius, shared the command of the
forces with Octavius, and as he was secretly ordered to do it by the Senate
he demanded as his share the two legions that had deserted from Antony,
knowing that they were the most reliable in the army. Octavius yielded to
him in everything and they shared with each other and went into winter
quarters together. As winter advanced Decimus began to suffer from hunger,
and Hirtius and Octavius advanced toward Mutina lest Antony should receive
in surrender Decimus’ army now weak with famine; but as Mutina was closely
hemmed in by Antony, they did not venture to come to close quarters with him
at once, but waited for Pansa. There were frequent cavalry engagements, as
Antony had a much larger force of horse, but the difficulty of the ground,
which was cut up by torrents, deprived him of the advantage of numbers.
Such was the course of events around Mutina. At Rome, in the absence of the
consuls, Cicero took the lead by public speaking. He held frequent
assemblies, procured arms by inducing the artificers to work without pay,
collected money, and exacted heavy contributions from the Antonians. These
paid without complaining in order to avoid calumny, until Publius Ventidius,
who had served under Gaius Caesar and was a friend of Antony,
unable to endure the exactions of Cicero, betook himself to
Caesar’s colonies, where he was well known, and raised two legions
for Antony and hastened to Rome to seize Cicero. The consternation was
extreme. They removed most of the women and children in a panic, and Cicero
himself fled from the city. When Ventidius learned this he turned his course
toward Antony, but being intercepted by Octavius and Hirtius, he proceeded
to Picenum, where he recruited another legion and waited to see what would
happen.
Carsuleius and Pansa passed through the defile by night. At daybreak, with only the Martian legion and five other cohorts, they entered upon the road above mentioned, which was still free from enemies, and looked over the marsh on either side. There was a suspicious agitation of the bushes, then a gleaming of shields and helmets, and Antony’s praetorian cohort suddenly showed itself directly in their front. The Martian legion, surrounded on all sides and having no way to escape, ordered the new levies, if they came up, not to join in the fight lest they should cause confusion by their inexperience. The praetorians of Octavius confronted the praetorians of Antony. The other troops divided themselves in two parts and advanced into the marsh on either side, the one commanded by Pansa and the other by Carsuleius. Thus there were two battles in two marshes, and neither division could see the other by reason of the elevated road, while along the road itself the praetorian cohorts fought another battle of their own. The Antonians were determined to punish the Martians for desertion as being traitors to themselves. The Martians were equally determined to punish the Antonians for condoning the slaughter of their comrades at Brundusium. Recognizing in each other the flower of either army they hoped to decide the whole war by this single engagement. The one side was moved by shame lest its two legions should be beaten by one; the other by ambition that its single legion should overcome the two.
Thus urged on rather by their own animosity and ambition than by their generals they assailed each other, considering this their own affair. Being veterans they raised no battle-cry, since they could not expect to terrify each other, nor in the engagement did they utter a sound, either as victors or vanquished. As there could be neither flanking nor charging in marshes and ditches, they stood together in close order, and since neither could dislodge the other they locked together with their swords as in a wrestling match. No blow missed its mark. There were wounds and slaughter but no cries, only groans; and when one fell he was instantly borne away and another took his place. They needed neither admonition nor encouragement, since experience had made each one his own general. When they were overcome by fatigue they drew apart from each other for a brief space to take breath, as in gymnastic games, and then rushed again to the encounter. Amazement took possession of the new levies who had come up, as they beheld such deeds done with such precision and in such silence.
All put forth superhuman exertions, and the praetorians of Octavius perished to the last man. Those of the Martians who were under Carsuleius got the better of those opposed to them, who gave way, not in disgraceful rout, but little by little. Those under Pansa were likewise in difficulties, but they held out with equal bravery on both sides until Pansa was wounded in the abdomen by a javelin and carried off the field to Bononia. Then his soldiers retired, at first step by step, but afterward they turned and took refuge in flight. When the new levies saw this they fled in disorder, and with loud cries, to their camp, which the quaestor, Torquatus, had put in readiness for them while the battle was in progress, apprehending that it might be needed. The new levies dashed into it confusedly although they were Italians, the same as the Martians, so much more than race does training contribute to bravery. The Martians for fear of shame did not enter into the camp, but ranged themselves near it. Although fatigued they were still furious and ready to fight to the bitter end if anybody should attack them. Antony refrained from the attack as a bad job, but he fell upon the new levies and made a great slaughter.
When Hirtius near Mutina heard of this fight, at a distance of sixty stades,
he hurried thither with the other legion that had deserted from Antony. It
was already evening and the victorious Antonians were returning singing
hymns of triumph. While they were in loose order Hirtius made his appearance
in perfect order with his legion complete and fresh. The Antonians got
themselves in line under compulsion, and performed against this foe also
many splendid deeds of valor; but being wearied by their recent exertions
they were overcome by the fresh army opposed to them, and the greater part
of them were slain in this encounter by Hirtius, although the latter did not
pursue, being apprehensive of the marshy ground. As darkness was coming on
he allowed them to escape. A wide stretch of the marsh was filled with arms,
corpses, wounded men, and half-dead men. Some were unhurt but were overcome
by fatigue. Antony’s cavalry, as many as he had with him, went to their
assistance and collected them through the entire night. Some they put on
horse-back in their own places, others they took on the horses with
themselves, still others they urged to take hold of the horses’ tails and
run along with them and so secure their safety. Thus were Antony’s forces,
after he had fought splendidly, scattered by the coming of Hirtius. He
encamped without entrenchments in a village near the plain, named Forum
Gallorum.
The next day they all withdrew to the camps at Mutina. After so severe a
disaster Antony decided not to come to a general engagement with his enemies
at present, not even if they should attack him, but merely to harass them
daily with his cavalry until Decimus, who was reduced to extremity by
famine, should surrender. For this very reason Hirtius and Octavius decided
to push on a fight. As Antony would not come out when they offered battle,
they moved toward the other side of Mutina where it was less closely
besieged on account of the badness of the ground, as if about to force their
way into the town with their strong army. Antony followed their movement
with his cavalry and this time also with those alone. As the enemy fought
him with their cavalry only, moving the rest of their army in whatever way
they chose, Antony, lest he should lose Mutina, drew out of his
entrenchments two legions. Then his enemies rejoiced at this, turned and
delivered battle. Antony ordered up other legions from other camps, but as
they came slowly, by reason of the suddenness of the call or the long
distance, the army of Octavius won the victory. Hirtius even broke into
Antony’s camp, where he was killed, fighting near the general’s tent.
Octavius rushed in and carried off his body and possessed himself of the
camp. A little later he was driven out by Antony. Both sides passed the
night under arms.
When Antony had suffered this second defeat, he took counsel with his friends
directly after the battle. They advised him to adhere to his first
resolution, to continue the siege of Mutina and not to go out and fight,
saying that the losses had been about equal on both sides, Hirtius having
been killed and Pansa wounded; that he (Antony) was superior in cavalry and
that Mutina was reduced to extremity by famine and must soon succumb. Such
was the advise of his friends, and it was truly for the best. But Antony,
now misled by a god, was fearful lest Octavius should make another attempt
to break into Mutina like that of yesterday, or even try to enclose him
(Antony), as Octavius had the greater force of laborers, in which case.
said he, our cavalry will be useless and Lepidus and Plancus will despise
me as a vanquished man. If we withdraw from Mutina, Ventidius will presently
join us with three legions from Picenum, and Lepidus and Plancus will be
emboldened to ally themselves with us.
So he spoke, although he was not a
timid man in the presence of danger; and breaking camp forthwith he made his
way toward the Alps.
When Decimus was delivered from the siege he began to be afraid of Octavius,
whom, after the removal of the two consuls, he feared as an enemy. So he
broke down the bridge over the river before daybreak and sent certain
persons to Octavius in a boat, as if to return thanks for rescuing him, and
asked that Octavius would come to the opposite bank of the river to hold a
conversation with him in the presence of the citizens as witnesses, because
he could convince Octavius, he said, that an evil spirit had deceived him
and led him into the conspiracy against Caesar with the others.
Octavius answered the messengers in a tone of anger, declining the thanks
that Decimus gave him, saying: I am here not to rescue Decimus, but to
fight Antony, with whom I may properly come to terms sometime, but nature
forbids that I should even look at Decimus or hold any conversation with
him. Let him have safety, however, as long as the authorities at Rome
please.
When Decimus heard this he stood on the river bank and, calling
Octavius by name, read with a loud voice the letters of the Senate giving
him command of the Gallic province, and forbade Octavius to cross the river
without consular authority, into the government belonging to another, and
not to follow Antony further, because he (Decimus) would suffice for the
pursuit of the latter. Octavius knew that he was prompted to this audacious
course by the Senate, and although able to seize him by giving an order, he
spared him for the present and withdrew to Pansa at Bononia, where he wrote
a full report to the Senate, and Pansa did likewise.I should have
driven Antony to such straits that he would have succumbed to want
rather than the sword. But I cannot command Octavius, nor can he command
his own army, which is doubly unfortunate.
(I was not able to
pursue immediately,
he says, because I had neither cavalry nor pack
animals. I did not know that Hirtius was dead. I could not trust
Octavius, until I had met and conversed with him. So that day passed.
Early the next day I was summoned by Pansa to Bononia. While I was on
the road thither news was brought to me that he was dead. So I returned
to my little band, for so I can truly call it, reduced as it is to
extremity by the want of everything. Thus Antony got two days the start
of me.
(
In Rome Cicero read to the people the report of the consul, and to the Senate
alone that of Octavius. For the victory over Antony, he caused them to vote
a thanksgiving of fifty days,— a longer festivity than the Romans had ever
decreed even after the Gallic or any other war. He induced them to give the
army of the consuls to Decimus, although Pansa was still alive (for his life
was now despaired of), and to appoint Decimus the sole commander against
Antony. Public prayers were offered that Decimus might prevail over him.
Such was Cicero’s passion and want of decorum in reference to Antony. He
confirmed again, to the two legions that had deserted from Antony, the 5000
drachmas per man previously promised to them as the rewards of victory, as
though they had already conquered, and gave them the perpetual right to wear
the olive crown at the public festivals. There was nothing about Octavius in
the decrees, and his name was not even mentioned. He was forthwith
disregarded as though Antony were already destroyed. They wrote to Lepidus,
to Plancus, and to Asinius Pollio to fight Antony when he should draw near
them. Such was the course of events at Rome.
In the meantime Pansa was dying of his wound, and he summoned Octavius to his
side, and said: I loved your father as I did myself, yet I could not
avenge his death, nor could I fail to unite with the majority, whom you have
also done well to obey, although you have an army. At first they feared you
and Antony, and especially Antony, as he seemed to be the one most ambitious
to fill the rôle of Caesar, and they were delighted with
your dissensions, thinking that you would mutually destroy each other. When
they saw you the master of an army, they complimented you as a young man
with specious and inexpensive honors. When they saw that you were more proud
and self-restrained in respect of honors than they had supposed, and
especially when you declined the magistracy that your army offered you, they
were alarmed and they appointed you to the command with us in order that we
might draw your two experienced legions away from you, hoping that when one
of you was vanquished the other would be weakened and isolated, and so the
whole of Caesar’s party would be effaced and that of Pompey be
restored to power. This is their chief aim.
Hirtius and I did what we were ordered to do, until we could humble Antony,
who was much too arrogant; but we intended when he was vanquished to bring
him into alliance with you and thus to pay the debt of gratitude we owed to
Caesar’s friendship, the only payment that could be serviceable to
Caesar’s party hereafter. It was not possible to communicate this
to you before, but now that Antony is vanquished and Hirtius dead, and I am
about to pay the debt of nature, the time for speaking has come, not that
you may be grateful to me after my death, but that you, born to a happy
destiny, as your deeds proclaim, may know what is for your own interest, and
know that the course taken by Hirtius and myself was a matter of necessity.
The army that you yourself gave to us should most properly be given back to
you, and I do give it. If you can take and hold the new levies, I will give
you those also. If they are too much in awe of the Senate (for their
officers were sent to act as spies upon us), and if the task would be an
invidious one, and would create trouble for you prematurely, the
quaestor Torquatus will take command of them.
After speaking thus
he transferred the new levies to the quaestor and expired. The
quaestor transferred them to Decimus as the Senate had ordered.
Octavius sent the bodies of Hirtius and Pansa with honors to Rome, where
they received a public funeral.The accusation,
says Brutus, has not the least foundation.
Who has suffered more than he from Pansa’s death? Moreover, he is a man
of sobriety and character, whom not even self-interest could impel to
such a crime. I ask you, I ardently beseech you (for our Achilleus is
deeply pained) to have him released from custody, and take care of him.
(
The following events took place in Syria and Macedonia about the same time.
Gaius Caesar, when he passed through Syria, left a legion there, as
he was already contemplating an expedition against the Parthians.
Caecilius Bassus had charge of it, but the title of commander was
held by Sextus Julius, a young man related to Caesar himself, who
was given over to dissipation and who led the legion around everywhere in an
indecorous manner. Once when Bassus reproved him, he replied insultingly,
and sometime later, when he called Bassus to him and the latter was slow in
obeying, he ordered him to be dragged before him. A tumult and blows ensued.
The soldiers would not tolerate the indignity and stabbed Julius. This act
was followed by repentance and fear of Caesar. Accordingly, they
took an oath together that they would defend themselves to the death if they
were not pardoned and restored to confidence, and they compelled Bassus to
take the same oath. They also enlisted and drilled another legion as
associates with themselves. This is one account of Bassus, but Libo
While Bassus was besieged by the latter, Cassius suddenly came up with them and took possession, not only of the two legions of Bassus, but also of the six that were besieging him, whose leaders surrendered in a friendly way and obeyed him as proconsul; for the Senate had decreed, as I have already said, that all [beyond the Adriatic] should obey Cassius and Brutus. Just then Allienus, who had been sent to Egypt by Dolabella, brought from that quarter four legions of soldiers dispersed by the disasters of Pompey and of Crassus, or left with Cleopatra by Caesar. Cassius surrounded him unawares in Palestine and compelled him to surrender, as he did not dare to fight with four legions against eight. Thus Cassius became the master, in a surprising way, of twelve legions, and laid siege to Dolabella, who was coming from Asia with two legions and had been received in Laodicea in a friendly manner. The Senate was delighted when it heard the news.
In Macedonia Gaius Antonius, the brother of Mark Antony, with one legion of
foot soldiers, contended with Brutus, and, being inferior in strength to the
latter, laid an ambuscade for him. Brutus avoided the trap, and, in his
turn, laid an ambuscade, but he did no harm to those whom he caught in it,
but ordered his own soldiers to salute their adversaries. Although the
latter did not return the salutation or accept the courtesy he allowed them
to pass out of the trap unharmed. Then he went around by other roads and
confronted them again at a precipice, and again did them no harm but saluted
them. Then, regarding him as a saviour of his fellow-citizens, and as one
deserving the reputation he had gained for wisdom and mildness, they
conceived an admiration for him, saluted him, and passed over to him. Gaius
also surrendered himself and was treated with honor by Brutus until he was
convicted of having tried several times to corrupt the army, when he was put
to death.
Such was the state of affairs in Syria and Macedonia. In Italy Octavius,
although he considered it an insult that Decimus, instead of himself, was
chosen general against Antony, concealed his indignation and asked the
honors of a triumph for his exploits. Being disdained by the Senate as
though he were seeking honors beyond his years, he began to fear lest if
Antony were destroyed he should be despised still more, and so he desired a
reconciliation with Antony, as Pansa on his death-bed had recommended to
him.My affection and duty to you,
he
says, compel me to feel for you what I never feel for myself, namely,
fear. It is about a saying that I have heard several times, and have at
no time made light of, and very lately from Labeo Segulius (so very like
himself), who tells me that he was with Octavius, and they were having
much conversation about you. Octavius himself did not make any complaint
of you, except as to a phrase that he said you had uttered, namely,
The force of this The young
man should be praised, honored, and extolled,
or The young man should
be praised, honored, and taken off.
Decimus continued, Octavius said
that he should not furnish any opportunity for his taking off.
He added
that very likely Segulius himself had reported this saying to Octavius,
or even that he had invented the whole thing himself (May
the gods confound Segulius,
he says, for the basest creature of all
who live, or have lived, or shall live,
but he does not deny that he
made use of the phrase (
After conveying these hints to Antony, Octavius wrote still more plainly to
Lepidus and Asinius concerning the indignities put upon himself and the
rapid advancement of the murderers, causing them to fear, lest in
consequence of the favor extended to the Pompeian faction, each of the
Caesarians should, one by one, share the fate of Antony, although
he was suffering the consequences of his own folly and arrogance.You know, my dear Cicero, that I share your
affection for Octavius. Because of my intimacy with Caesar when
he was alive, I was under the necessity of defending and loving
Octavius, and for the further reason that, as far as I could discover,
he was himself a young man of most moderate and humane sentiments.
Considering the distinguished friendship that existed between
Caesar and myself, it would have been base in me not to hold
him in the place of a son, when he had been adopted as such by
Caesar, and confirmed by the judgment of the Senate. Now, what
I write to you I swear that I write more in sorrow than in anger. That
Antony is alive to-day, that Lepidus has joined him, that they have an
army not to be despised, that they have hope and courage, are due wholly
to Octavius. Not to go farther back, if he had been willing to join me
at the time he said he would, either the war would now be ended, or it
would be pushed into Spain, which is most hostile to them, to their
great disadvantage.
(whose naval arrangements were already made.
This is so incongruous with
historical facts that most commentators have substituted some other word
for Decimus wrote to the Senate that he would pursue and capture
Antony immediately. When the Pompeians learned what had happened,
etc.,
a rational explanation.
When the Pompeians learned what had happened (and an astonishing number
showed themselves to be of that party), they exclaimed that their ancestral
freedom had at last been regained, and they each offered sacrifices.
Decemvirs were chosen to examine the accounts of Antony’s magistracy. This
was a preliminary step to annulling Caesar’s arrangements, for
Antony had done little or nothing himself, but had conducted all the affairs
of state in accordance with Caesar’s memoranda.Octavius sent friends to Cicero to beg
and persuade him to obtain the consulship for both of them, saying that
he (Cicero) might conduct the business in whatever way he chose after
entering upon the office, and might govern him, as he was a young man
solicitous only for the name and the honor. Octavius himself
acknowledges that, as he was fearful of being ruined and in danger of
being deserted, he made use of Cicero’s desire for office by persuading
him to seek the consulship in coöperation with himself, and to
assist him in the canvass. Thereupon Cicero, although now an old man,
was allured by the young man and cheated by him, for he aided Octavius
in this canvass for the consulship, and brought the Senate over to his
side; but being presently blamed by his friends, he perceived a little
later that he was undone, and that he had betrayed the liberty of the
people.
(
For various reasons the election was postponed in accordance with the law. Meanwhile, Antony passed over the Alps with the permission of Culleo, who had been stationed there by Lepidus to guard them, and advanced to a river where the latter was encamped. He neglected to surround himself with palisade and ditch, as though he were camping alongside a friend. Messengers were going back and forth between them constantly, Antony reminding Lepidus of their friendship and of his various good offices, and showing him that after he (Antony) should be destroyed all who had enjoyed Caesar’s friendship would suffer a like fate, one by one. Lepidus feared the Senate, which had ordered him to make war on Antony, but he promised nevertheless that he would not do so voluntarily. The army of Lepidus, having respect for Antony’s dignity and perceiving the messengers going back and forth, and being gratified with the simple manners prevailing in Antony’s camp, mingled with his men, at first secretly, then openly, like fellow-citizens and fellow-soldiers, disregarding the orders of the tribunes, who forbade their doing so; and in order to facilitate their intercourse they made a bridge of boats across the river. The so-called Tenth Legion, that had been enlisted by Antony originally, arranged things for him inside the camp of Lepidus.
When Laterensis, one of the distinguished members of the Senate, perceived this he warned Lepidus. As the latter was incredulous Laterensis advised him to divide his army in several parts and send them away on certain errands in order to test whether they were faithful or not. Accordingly, Lepidus divided them in three parts, and ordered them to go out by night in order to protect some quaestors who were approaching. About the last watch the soldiers armed themselves as if for the march, seized the fortified parts of the camp, and opened the gates to Antony. The latter came running to the tent of Lepidus, whose whole army was now escorting Antony, and they besought Lepidus for peace and compassion to their unfortunate fellow-citizens. Lepidus leaped out of bed among them undressed, just as he was, promised to do what they asked, embraced Antony, and pleaded necessity as his excuse. Some say that he fell on his knees before Antony, being an inexperienced and timid man. Not all writers put faith in this report, nor do I, for he had as yet done nothing whatever inimical to Antony and nothing to cause fear. Thus did Antony again become a very powerful man and most formidable to his enemies. He had the army with which he had abandoned the siege of Mutina, including its magnificent cavalry. Ventidius had joined him on the road with three legions. Lepidus had become his ally with seven legions of foot soldiers and a great number of auxiliary troops and apparatus in proportion. Lepidus nominally retained the command of these, but Antony directed every-thing.
When these facts became known at Rome a wonderful and sudden change took place. Those who had just now held Antony in contempt were alarmed, while the fears of others were changed to courage. The edicts of the decemvirs were torn down with derision and the consular election was still further postponed. The Senate, wholly at a loss what to do and fearful lest Octavius and Antony should form an alliance, sent two of their number, Lucius and Pansa, secretly to Brutus and Cassius, under pretence of attending the games in Greece, to urge them to lend all the assistance possible. It recalled from Africa two of the three legions under Sextius, and ordered the third to be given over to Cornificius, who commanded another portion of Africa, and who favored the senatorial party. Although they knew that these legions had served under Gaius Caesar, and although they suspected everything of his, yet the want of other forces compelled them to take this course. Most awkwardly, too, they reappointed the young Octavius as general with Decimus against Antony, for they feared lest he should unite with Antony.
Octavius excited the army to anger against the Senate on account of its repeated indignities toward himself, and for requiring the soldiers to undertake a second campaign before paying them the 5000 drachmas per man which it had promised to give them for the first. He advised them to send and ask for the money. They sent their centurions. The Senate understood that the men had been advised to this course by Octavius and said that it would make answer by its own legates. It sent the latter, under instructions, to address themselves, when Octavius was not present, to the two legions which had deserted from Antony, and to advise the soldiers not to rest their hopes on a single person, but on the Senate, which alone had perpetual power, and to go to the camp of Decimus, where they would find the promised money. Having delivered this charge to the legates it forwarded one-half of the donative and appointed ten men to divide it, to whom it did not add Octavius as the eleventh. As the two legions refused to meet them without Octavius, the legates returned leaving the business unfinished. Octavius no longer held communication with the troops through the medium of others and no longer asked them to wait, but assembled the army and came before them and related to them the indignities he had suffered from the Senate, and its purpose to destroy all the friends of Gaius Caesar, one by one. He admonished them also to beware against being transferred to a general opposed to their party and sent to one war after another for the purpose of being killed or arrayed in opposition to each other. This was the reason why, after their common struggles at Mutina were ended, rewards were given to only two legions, in order to induce strife and sedition in the army.
You know,
he said, the reason why Antony was lately vanquished. You have
heard what the Pompeians in the city did to those who had received certain
gifts from Caesar. What confidence can you have of keeping the
lands and money you have received from him, or what confidence can I have in
my own safety while the relatives of the murderers dominate the Senate ? I
shall accept my fate, whatever it may be, for it is beautiful to suffer
anything in the service of a father; but I fear for you, such a host of
brave men, who have incurred danger in behalf of me and my father. You know
that I have been free from ambition from the time when I declined the
praetorship that you offered me with the insignia of that office. I
see only one path of safety now for both of us, and that is that I obtain
the consulship by your help. In that case all of my father’s gifts to you
will be confirmed, the colonies that are still due to you will be
forthcoming, and all your rewards will be paid in full; and after bringing
the murderers to punishment I will release you from any more wars.
At these words the army cheered heartily, and forthwith sent their centurions
to ask the consulship for Octavius. When the Senate began to make talk about
his youth, the centurions replied, as they had been instructed, that in the
olden time Corvinus had held the office and at a later period the Scipios,
both the elder and the younger, before the legal age, and that the country
profited much from the youth of each. They instanced, as recent examples,
Pompey the Great and Dolabella and said that it had been granted to
Caesar himself to stand for the consulship ten years before the
legal age.
When the news of Octavius’ approach reached the city there was immense
confusion and alarm. People ran hither and thither, and some conveyed their
wives and children and whatever they held most dear to the fields and to the
fortified parts of the city, for it was not yet known that he aimed only at
securing the consulship. Having heard that an army was advancing with
hostile intentions, there was nothing that they did not fear. The Senate was
struck with consternation since it had no military force in readiness. As is
usual in cases of panic they blamed each other. Some were blamed because
they had wrongfully deprived him of the command of the campaign against
Antony, others because they had treated with contempt his demand for a
triumph, a request which was not without justice; others because they had
envied him the honor of distributing the money; others because he had not
been made an additional member of the board of ten. Still others said that
the army had become hostile because the gifts voted to them had not been
quickly and fully paid. They complained especially because of the
inopportune time for such a strife, while Brutus and Cassius were far away
and their forces not yet organized, and on their own flank in a hostile
attitude were Antony and Lepidus, who, they thought, might form an alliance
with Octavius. Thus their fears were greatly augmented. Cicero, who had so
long taken the lead, was nowhere to be seen.Octavius,
he says, who has hitherto been governed by my
counsels and who has shown a most excellent disposition and an admirable
firmness, has been pushed on by certain persons by most wicked letters
and lying reports and messages to an absolutely certain hope of the
consulship. As soon as I learned this I ceased not to admonish him by
letters while absent, and to accuse his friends who are present, and who
seem to support his claims, nor did I hesitate to expose in the Senate
the source of these most wretched designs. Nor do I remember any affair
in which the Senate or the magistrates have shown a better spirit. For
it has never before happened when it was a question of conferring an
extraordinary honor on a powerful man, or rather an all-powerful man
(since power now resides in force and arms), that no one, whether
tribune of the people or other magistrate or even a private person,
would lift his voice in favor of it. Yet in the midst of this firmness
and virtue the city was in a state of anxiety. We are made sport of,
Brutus, by the whims of the soldiers and the insolence of the general.
Each one demands as much power in the republic as he has the force to
extort. Reason, moderation, law, custom, duty, count for nothing, nor is
regard for the opinion of citizens, or shame for that of posterity, of
any avail. It was because I foresaw all this long ago that I fled from
Italy, at the time when the report of your proclamation recalled me.
(
There was a sudden change on all hands. Instead of 2500 drachmas 5000 were given. Instead of two legions only, the entire eight were to be paid. Octavius was appointed to make the distribution instead of the ten commissioners, and he was allowed to be a candidate for the consulship while absent. Messengers were hastily despatched to tell him these things. Directly after they had left the city the Senate repented. It felt that it ought not to be so weakly terror-stricken, or accept a new tyranny without bloodshed, or accustom those seeking office to gain it by violence, or the soldiers to govern the country by the word of command. Rather should they arm themselves as far as possible and oppose the laws to the invaders, for there was some hope that, if the laws were opposed to them, not even they would bear arms against their country. If they should do so, it would be best to endure a siege until Decimus and Plancus should come to the rescue, and to defend themselves to the death rather than submit voluntarily to a slavery thenceforth without remedy. They recounted the high spirit and endurance in behalf of freedom of the Romans of old, who never yielded anything prejudicial to their liberty.
As the two legions sent for from Africa happened to arrive in the harbor on the same day, it seemed as though the gods were urging them to defend their freedom. Their regret for what they had done was confirmed; Cicero again made his appearance, and they repealed all of the decrees above mentioned. All who were of military age were called to arms, also the two legions from Africa, and 1000 horse with them, and another legion that Pansa had left behind, all these were assigned to their proper places. Some of them guarded the so-called hill of Janiculum, where the money was stored, others held the bridge over the Tiber, and the city praetors were put in command of the separate divisions. Others made ready small boats and ships in the harbor, together with money, in order to escape by sea in case they should be vanquished. While courageously making these hasty preparations they hoped to alarm Octavius in his turn, and induce him to seek the consulship from them instead of the army, or they hoped at least to defend themselves to the last extremity. They hoped also to change those of the opposite faction as soon as it became a contest for liberty. When they sought for the mother and sister of Octavius, and did not discover them either in any open or secret abode, they were again alarmed at finding themselves deprived of such important hostages, and as the Caesarians showed no disposition to yield to them they concluded that these women had been carefully concealed by them.
While Octavius was still giving audience to the messengers, it was announced to him that the decrees had been rescinded. The messengers thereupon withdrew, covered with confusion. With his army still more exasperated Octavius hastened to the city, fearing lest some evil should befall his mother and sister. To the plebeians, who were in a state of consternation, he sent horsemen in advance to tell them to have no fear. While all were amazed he took a position just beyond the Quirinal hill, no one daring to fight or prevent him. Now another wonderful and sudden change took place. Patricians flocked out and saluted him. The common people ran also and admired the good order of the soldiers, which they considered a sign of peace. On the following day Octavius advanced toward the city, leaving his army where it was, and having with him only a sufficient guard. Here, again, crowds met him along the whole road and saluted him, omitting nothing that savored of friendliness and weak compliance. His mother and sister, who were in the temple of Vesta with the Vestal virgins, embraced him. The three legions, in spite of their generals, sent ambassadors and transferred themselves to him. One of the generals in command of them, Cornutus, killed himself. The others allied themselves with Octavius. When Cicero learned this he sought an interview with Octavius through friends. When it was granted he defended himself and dwelt much upon his proposing Octavius for the consulship, as he had done in the Senate on a former occasion. Octavius answered ironically that Cicero seemed to be the last of his friends to greet him.
The next night a rumor gained currency that two of Octavius’ legions, the Martian and the Fourth, had gone over to the side of the republic, because they had been led against their country by deception. The praetors and the Senate put faith in this report heedlessly, although the army was very near, thinking that with the assistance of these two legions, as they were the bravest, it would be possible to hold out against the rest of Octavius’ army until some force from elsewhere should come to the rescue. The same night they sent Manius Aquilius Crassus to Picenum to raise troops, and ordered one of the tribunes, named Apuleius, to run through the city and proclaim the good news to the people. The senators assembled by night in the senate-house, and Cicero received them at the door, but when the news was contradicted he took flight in a litter.
Octavius laughed at them and moved his army nearer to the city and stationed
it in the Campus Martius. He did not then punish any of the
praetors, not even Crassus who had rushed off to Picenum, although
the latter was brought before him just as he was caught, in the disguise of
a slave. He pardoned all in order to acquire a reputation for clemency. But
not long afterward they were put on the list of the proscribed. He ordered
that the public money on the Janiculum or elsewhere be brought to him, and
that the amount that had been previously ordered to be paid on the motion of
Cicero be distributed; that is, he divided 2500 drachmas per man and
promised to give them the remainder. Then he took his departure from the
city until the consuls should be chosen by the comitia. Having been elected,
together with Quintus Pedius, whom he desired to have as his colleague, and
who had given to him his own portion of his inheritance from
Caesar, he entered the city as consul. He offered the usual
sacrifices, and twelve vultures were seen; the same number, they say, that
appeared to Romulus when he laid the foundations of the city. After the
sacrifices he caused his adoption by his father to be ratified again,
according to the The Senate showed little gratitude to Octavius, the
only survivor of the three leaders at Mutina. The honor of a triumph was
decreed to Decimus Brutus, who was delivered from the siege of Mutina by
Octavius. They did not make sufficiently grateful mention of Octavius
and his soldiers, for which reason, after a reconciliation had been
effected by him with Antony through Marcus Lepidus, he came to Rome with
his army, struck terror into those who had treated him unjustly, and was
created consul when he was nineteen years of age.
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 Caesar. Indictments
were found forthwith, the friends of Caesar 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 Caesar 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 praetor 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 praetorship, 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.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 (
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 Caesar’s account and on Plancus
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 Caesar 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.
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.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.older Gaul,
which, as Appian himself tells
us in iv. 2,
WHEN I heard of the death of Trebonius I was both glad and sorry. It rejoiced me to know-that a wretch had paid the penalty due to the ashes and bones of the most illustrious of men, and that the vengeance of the gods had overtaken him within the term of the revolving year, and that punishment for the parricidal act is either accomplished or impending. I mourn that Dolabella was voted an enemy as soon as he had put the assassin to death, and that the son of a buffoon should seem dearer to the Roman people than Gaius Caesar, the father of his country. Most grievous is it that you, Aulus Hirtius, loaded as you are with Caesar’s benefactions, and left by him in a condition that must be a surprise to yourself, and you, O boy, who owe everything to his name, should so conduct yourselves that Dolabella should be condemned by law, and this pest [Decimus Brutus] delivered from siege, and Brutus and Cassius strengthened as much as possible. You look upon the present state of things too much as you have viewed the past. You call Pompey’s camp the Senate. You have taken the vanquished Cicero for a leader. You are strengthening Macedonia with armies. You have placed Africa in charge of Varus, who was twice taken prisoner. You have sent Cassius into Syria. You have allowed Casca to hold the tribuneship. You have taken away the revenues of the Luperci assigned to them by Caesar. You have abolished the colonies of veterans established by law andsenatus consultum. You promise to restore to the Massilians what was taken from them by the law of war. Do you forget that under the law of Hirtius no Pompeian who lives can hold office? You have supplied Brutus with the money of Apuleius. You applauded the execution of Paetus and Menedemus, Caesar’s hosts, who had been given the citizenship by him. You took no notice of Theopompus when he was stripped and driven out by Trebonius and fled to Alexandria. You tolerate Servius Galba in your camp girded with the same dagger [with which he stabbed Caesar]. You have enlisted my soldiers and the veterans under pretence of exterminating those who killed Caesar, and have hurled them, in ignorance of what they were doing, against their quaestor, their general, their comrades. In short, what have you not approved of, what have you not done, that Pompey himself would do if he could come to life, or his son if he were at home? Finally, you say that peace is not possible unless I let Brutus go free or supply him with corn. What? Is this the opinion of those veterans who can still choose their own course? Since you have sold yourselves for adulation and poisoned gifts, . . . But you say you are bringing aid to beleaguered soldiers. I will not hinder them from escaping and going where they please if they will let that man perish who has deserved to perish. You write me that mention has been made of peace in the Senate, and of five ambassadors of consular rank. It is hard to believe that those who drove me headlong when I offered the fairest conditions, and was even thinking of abating some part of them, can contemplate any moderate or humane act. It is hardly probable that those who voted Dolabella an enemy for his most righteous deed could spare me, who hold the same sentiments with him. Wherefore you ought rather to reflect whether it is more fitting, and more useful to our party, to avenge the death of Trebonius or that of Caesar, and whether it is more equitable for us to compete with each other in bringing to life the cause of Pompey that has so often had its throat cut, or to combine, so that we be not a laughing-stock to our enemies, who will be the gainers whichever of us shall fall. Fortune itself has thus far shunned that spectacle, that it might not behold two armies belonging to one body fighting each other, with Cicero for trainer, who is a happy man in so far as he can deceive you with the same compliments with which he boasted that he deceived Caesar. I am resolved to endure no affront either to myself or to my friends, nor to desert the party that Pompey hated, nor to allow the veterans to be moved from their settlements or be put to the torture one by one; nor shall I come short of the faith I pledged to Dolabella, nor violate my alliance with Lepidus, that most conscientious man, nor betray Plancus, the partner of my counsels. If the immortal gods aid me, as I hope, in my righteous course, I shall be glad to live; but if another fate awaits me I shall enjoy your punishment in advance, for if the Pompeians are so insolent when vanquished, what they will be when victorious you will learn by experience rather than myself. Finally, the sum and substance of my decision is this, I can bear the injuries that my friends have done me if they are willing to forget that they have done them, or if they are ready to join me in avenging Caesar’s death. I do not believe that ambassadors are coming to the theatre of war. When they do come I shall know what they demand.
THUS was punishment visited upon two of Caesar’s murderers, who were conquered in their own provinces, Trebonius in Asia and Decimus Brutus in Gaul. How vengeance overtook Cassius and Marcus Brutus, who were the principal leaders in the conspiracy against Caesar, and who controlled the territory from Syria to Macedonia, and had large forces of cavalry and sailors, and more than twenty legions of infantry, together with ships and money, this fourth book of the Civil Wars will show. During the progress of these events came the pursuit and capture of the proscribed in Rome and the sufferings consequent thereon, the like of which cannot be recalled among the civil commotions or wars of the Greeks, or those of the Romans themselves save only in the time of Sulla, who was the first to put his enemies on a proscription list. Marius searched for his and punished those whom he found, but Sulla proclaimed large rewards to persons who should kill the proscribed and severe punishment to those who should conceal them. But what took place in the time of Marius and Sulla I have previously narrated in the history relating to them. The following events came next in order.
Octavius and Antony composed their differences on a small, gradually sloping islet in the river Lavinius, near the city of Mutina. Each had five legions of soldiers whom they stationed opposite each other, after which each proceeded with 300 men to the bridges over the river. Lepidus himself went before them, searched the island, and shook his military cloak as a signal to them to come. Then each left his three hundred in charge of friends on the bridges and advanced to the middle of the island in plain sight, and there the three sat together in council, Octavius in the centre because he was consul. They were in conference from morning till night for two days, and came to these decisions: That Octavius should resign the consulship and that Ventidius should take it for the remainder of the year; that anew magistracy for quieting the civil dissensions should be created by law, which Lepidus, Antony, and Octavius should hold for five years with consular power (for this name seemed preferable to that of dictator, perhaps because of Antony’s decree abolishing the dictatorship); that these three should at once designate the yearly magistrates of the city for the five years; that a distribution of the provinces should be made, giving to Antony the whole of Gaul except the part bordering the Pyrenees Mountains, which was called Old Gaul. The latter, together with Spain, was assigned to Lepidus, while Octavius was to have Africa, Sardinia, and Sicily, and the other islands in the vicinity thereof.
Thus was the dominion of the Romans divided by the triumvirate among
themselves. The assignment of the parts beyond the Adriatic only was
postponed, since these were still under the control of Brutus and Cassius,
against whom Antony and Octavius were to wage war. Lepidus was to be consul
the following year and to remain in the city to do what was needful there,
meanwhile governing Spain by proxy. He was to retain three of his legions to
guard the city, and to divide the other seven between Octavius and Antony,
three to the former and four to the latter, so that each of them might lead
twenty legions to the war. To encourage the army with the expectation of
booty they promised them, beside other gifts, eighteen cities of Italy as
colonies — cities which excelled in wealth, in the fertility of their
territory, and in handsome houses, and which were to be divided among them
(land, buildings, and all), just as though they had been captured from an
enemy in war. The most renowned among these were Capua, Rhegium, Venusia,
Beneventum, Nuceria, Ariminum, and Vibo.
While these transactions were taking place many fearful prodigies and portents were observed at Rome. Dogs howled exactly like wolves — a fearful sign. Wolves darted through the forum — an animal unused to the city. Cattle used the human voice. A newly born infant spoke. Sweat issued from statues; some even sweated blood. Loud voices of men were heard and the clashing of arms and the tramp of horses where none could be seen. Many fearful signs were observed around the sun, there were showers of stones, and continuous lightning fell upon the sacred temples and images; in consequence of which the Senate sent for diviners and soothsayers from Etruria. The oldest of them said that the kingly rule of former times was coming back, and that they would all be slaves except himself, whereupon he closed his mouth and held his breath till he was dead.
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 praetorian 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 Lacedaemonians 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 Caesar, 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 Caesar 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
Caesar 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 Caesar and ourselves have suffered consider our
action unjust, cruel, or immoderate. Although Caesar 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 Caesar’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
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
In God’s name then,
Such was
the language of the proscription of the triumvirate as nearly as it can be
rendered from Latin into Greek.
Lepidus was the first to begin the work of proscription, and his brother
Paulus was the first on the list of the proscribed. Antony came next, and
the second name on the list was that of his uncle, Lucius
Caesar.
Straightway, throughout city and country, wherever each one happened to be found, there were sudden arrests and murder in various forms, and decapitations for the sake of the rewards when the head should be shown; also undignified flights in strange costumes, of persons hitherto well dressed. Some descended into wells, others into filthy sewers. Some took refuge in chimneys. Others crouched in the deepest silence under the thick-set tiles of their roofs. Some were not less fearful of their wives and ill-disposed children than of the murderers. Others feared their freedmen and their slaves; creditors feared their debtors and neighbors feared neighbors who coveted their lands. There was a sudden outburst of previously smouldering hates and a shocking change in the condition of senators, consulars, praetors, tribunes (men who were about to enter upon those offices, or who had already held them), who threw themselves with lamentations at the feet of their own slaves, giving to the servant the character of savior and master. It was most lamentable that even after submitting to this humiliation they did not obtain pity.
Every kind of calamity was rife, but not as in ordinary sedition or military occupation, for in those cases the people had to fear only the members of the opposite faction, or the enemy, and could rely on their own domestics. But now they were more afraid of them than of the assassins, for as the former had nothing to fear on their own account, as in ordinary seditions or wars, they were suddenly transformed from domestics into enemies, either from some concealed hatred, or in order to obtain the published rewards, or to possess themselves of the gold and silver in their masters’ houses. For these reasons each one became treacherous to the household, preferring his own gain to compassion for the home. Those who were faithful and well-disposed feared to aid, or conceal, or connive at the escape of the victims, because such acts made them liable to the very same punishments. This was quite different from the peril that befell the seventeen men first condemned. Then there was no proscription, but certain persons were arrested unexpectedly, and as all feared similar treatment all sheltered each other. After the proscriptions some immediately became the betrayers of all. Others, being free from danger themselves and eager for gain, became hunting dogs for the murderers for the sake of the rewards. Of the remainder, some plundered the houses of the slain, and their private gains turned their thoughts away from the public calamities; others, more prudent and upright, were palsied with consternation. It seemed most astounding to them, when they reflected upon it, that while other states afflicted by civil strife had been rescued by harmonizing the factions, in this case the dissensions of the leaders had wrought ruin in the first instance and their agreement with each other had had like consequences afterwards.
Some died defending themselves against their slayers. Others made no resistance, considering the assailants not to blame. Some starved, or hanged, or drowned themselves, or flung themselves from their roofs or into the fire. Some offered themselves to the murderers or sent for them when they delayed. Others concealed themselves and made abject entreaties, or dodged, or tried to buy themselves off. Some were killed by mistake, or by private malice, contrary to the intention of the triumvirs. It was evident that a corpse was not one of the proscribed if the head was still attached to it, for the heads of the proscribed were displayed on the rostra in the forum, where it was necessary to bring them in order to get the rewards. Equally conspicuous were the fidelity and courage of others — of wives, of children, of brothers, of slaves, who rescued the proscribed or planned for them in various ways, and died with them when they did not succeed in their designs. Some even killed themselves on the bodies of the slain. Of those who made their escape some perished by shipwreck, ill luck pursuing them to the last. Others were preserved, contrary to expectation, to become city magistrates, commanders in war, and even to enjoy the honors of a triumph. Such a display of paradoxes did this time afford.
These things took place not in an ordinary city, not in a weak and petty kingdom; but the deity thus smote the most powerful mistress of so many nations and of land and sea, and so brought about, after a long period of time, the present well-ordered condition. Other like events had taken place in the time of Sulla and even before him in that of Gaius Marius. The most notable of these calamities I have narrated in my history of those times, in which was the added horror that the dead were cast away unburied. The matters we are now considering are the more remarkable by reason of the dignity of the triumvirs and especially of one of them, who, by means of his character and good fortune, established the government on a firm foundation, and left his lineage and name to those who now rule after him. I shall now run over the most remarkable as well as the most shocking of these events, which are all the more worthy to be remembered because they were the last of the kind. I shall not speak of all, however, because the mere killing, or flight, or subsequent return of those who were pardoned by the triumvirs at a later period and passed undistinguished lives at home, is not worthy of mention. I shall refer only to those which are calculated to astonish by their extraordinary nature or to confirm what has already been said. These events are many, and they have been written in numerous books by many Roman historians successively. By way of summary, and to shorten my narrative, I shall record a few of each kind in order to confirm the truth of each and to illustrate the happiness of the present time.
The massacre began, as it happened, among those who were still in office, and the first one slain was the tribune Salvius. His was, according to the laws, a sacred and inviolable office, endowed with the greatest powers, even that of imprisoning the consuls in certain circumstances. Salvius was the tribune who had at first prevented the Senate from declaring Antony a public enemy, but later he had coöperated with Cicero in everything. When he heard of the agreement of the triumvirs, and of their hastening to the city, he gave a banquet to his friends, believing that he should not have many more opportunities for doing so. Soldiers burst in while the feast was going on. Some of the guests started up in tumultuous alarm, but the centurion in command ordered them to resume their places and remain quiet. Then, seizing Salvius by the hair, just as he was, the centurion drew him as far as need be across the table, cut off his head, and ordered the guests to stay where they were and make no disturbance unless they wished to suffer a like fate. So they remained after the centurion’s departure, stupefied and speechless, till the most silent watches of the night, reclining by the side of the tribune’s body. The second one slain was the praetor Minucius, who was holding the comitia in the forum. Learning that the soldiers were seeking him, he fled, and while he was still running about looking for a hiding-place he changed his clothes, and then darted into a shop, sending away his attendants and the insignia of his office. The attendants, moved by shame and pity, lingered near the place, and thus unintentionally made the discovery of the praetor more easy to his slayers.
Annalis, another praetor, was going around with his son, who was a
candidate for the quaestorship, and soliciting votes for him. Some
friends who accompanied him, and those who bore his insignia of office, when
they heard that he was on the list of the proscribed, ran away from him.
Annalis took refuge with one of his clients, who had in the suburbs a small,
mean apartment in every way despicable, where he remained safely concealed
until his son, suspecting that he had fled to this client, guided the
murderers to the place. The triumvirs gave him his father’s fortune and
raised him to the aedileship. As he was returning home drunk he
fell into a quarrel about something, and was killed by the same soldiers who
had killed his father. Thoranius, who was not then praetor but had
been such, and who was the father of a young man who was a scapegrace
generally, but had great influence with Antony, asked the centurions to
postpone his death for a short time, till his son could appeal to Antony for
him. They laughed at him, and said, He has already appealed, but on the
other side.
When the old man knew this he asked for another very short
interval until he could see his daughter, and when he saw her he told her
not to claim her share of the inheritance lest her brother should ask for
her death also from Antony. It happened in the son’s case that, after
squandering his fortune in disgraceful ways, he was convicted of theft and
sentenced to banishment.
Cicero, who had held supreme power after Caesar’s death, as much as
a public speaker could, was proscribed, together with his son, his brother,
and his brother’s son and all of his household, his faction, and his
friends. He fled in a small boat, but as he could not endure the
seasickness, he landed and went to a country place of his own near
Caieta,Come on, you centurions in the rear, this is the place.
whereupon the slaves, thinking that more soldiers were coming, were
terror-stricken.
Laena, although he had been once saved by Cicero when under trial,
drew his head out of the litter and cut it off, striking it three times, or
rather sawing it off by reason
of his inexperience. He also cut off the hand with which Cicero had written
the speeches against the tyranny of Antony and which he had entitled
Philippics in imitation of those of Demosthenes. Then some of the soldiers
hastened on horseback and others on shipboard to convey the good news
quickly to Antony. The latter was sitting in front of the tribunal in the
forum when Laena, a long distance off, showed him the head and hand
by lifting them up and shaking them. Antony was delighted beyond measure. He
crowned the centurion and gave him 250,000 Attic drachmas in addition to the
stipulated reward for killing the man who had been his greatest and most
bitter enemy. The head and hand of Cicero were suspended for a long time
from the rostra in the forum where formerly he had been accustomed to make
public speeches, and more people came together to behold this spectacle than
had previously come to listen to him. It is said that even at his meals
Antony placed the head of Cicero before his table, until he became satiated
with the horrid sight. Thus was Cicero, a man famous even yet for his
eloquence, and one who had rendered the greatest service to his country when
he held the office of consul, slain, and insulted after his death. His son
had been sent in advance to Brutus in Greece. Cicero’s brother, Quintus, was
captured, together with his son. He begged the murderers to kill him before
his son, and the son prayed that he might be killed before his father. The
murderers said that they would grant both requests, and, dividing themselves
into two parties, each taking one, killed them at the same time according to
agreement.
The Egnatii, father and son, while embracing each other, died by the same blow, and their heads were cut off while the remainder of their bodies were still locked together. Balbus sent his son in advance of himself in flight toward the sea in order that they might not be too conspicuous travelling together, and he followed at a short interval. Somebody told him, either by design or by mistake, that his son had been captured. He went back and delivered himself to the murderers. It happened, too, that his son perished by shipwreck. Thus did ill luck add to the calamities of the time. Aruntius had a son who was not willing to fly without his father. The latter with difficulty persuaded him to seek his safety because he was young. His mother accompanied him to the city gates and returned only to bury her slain husband. When she learned that her son also had perished at sea she starved herself to death. Such examples were there of good and bad sons.
Two brothers of the name of Ligarius, being proscribed together, hid
themselves in an oven till their slaves found them, when one of them was
killed and the other fled. When the latter learned that his brother had
perished he threw himself from a bridge into the Tiber. Some fishermen
seized him thinking that he had fallen into the water instead of leaping in.
He resisted rescue and tried to throw himself into the river again. When he
was overcome by the fishermen he exclaimed, You are not saving me, but
ruining yourselves by helping one who is proscribed.
Nevertheless they had
pity on him and saved him until some soldiers who were guarding the bridge
saw him, ran to him, and cut off his head. One of two brothers threw himself
into the river and one of his slaves searched for the body five days. At
last he found it, and as it was still possible to recognize it, he cut off
the head for the sake of the reward. The other brother had concealed himself
in a dung-heap and another slave betrayed him. The murderers disdained to go
into the heap, but thrust their spears into him and dragged him out. They
then cut off his head, just as he was, without washing it. Another one
seeing his brother arrested ran up to him, not knowing that he was himself
proscribed also, and said, Kill me instead of him.
kill me before him,
or kill me
instead of him.
The latter was the meaning intended, but the centurion
interpreted it the other way for the sake of the jest.Your request is a
proper one, for your name comes before his.
And so saying, he killed both
of them in due order. Let these serve as examples in the case of brothers.
Ligarius was concealed by his wife, who communicated the secret to only one
female slave. Having been betrayed by the latter, she followed her husband’s
head as it was carried away, crying out, I sheltered him; those who give
shelter are to share the punishment.
As nobody killed her or informed of
her, she came to the triumvirs and accused herself before them. Being moved
by her love for her husband they pretended not to see her. So she starved
herself to death. I have mentioned her in this place because she failed to
save her husband and would not survive him. I shall refer to those who were
successful in their devotion to their husbands when I speak of the men who
escaped. Other women betrayed their husbands infamously. Among these was the
wife of Septimius, who had an amour with a certain friend of Antony. Being
impatient to exchange this illicit connection for matrimony, she besought
Antony through her paramour
Salassus escaped, and, not knowing what to do with himself, came back to the city by night, thinking that the danger had mostly passed away. His house had been sold. The janitor, who had been sold with the house, was the only one who recognized him, and he received him in his room, promising to conceal him and feed him as well as he could. Salassus told the janitor to call his wife from her own house. She pretended to be very desirous to come, but to be fearful of the night and distrustful of her servants, and said that she would come at daybreak. When daylight came she went for the murderers. The janitor, because she was delaying, ran to her house to hasten her coming. When the janitor went out Salassus feared that he had gone to lay a plot against him, and went up to the roof to watch what would happen. Seeing that it was not the janitor but his wife who was bringing the murderers, he precipitated himself from the roof. Fulvius fled to the house of a female servant, who had been his mistress, and to whom he had given freedom and a dowry on her marriage. Although she had been so well treated by him she betrayed him on account of jealousy of the woman whom Fulvius had married after his relations with her. Let these serve as examples of depraved women.
Statius, the Samnite, who had had great influence with the Samnites during
the social war and who had been raised to the rank of a Roman senator for
his noble deeds, his wealth, and his lineage, and who was now eighty years
of age, was proscribed on account of his riches. He threw open his house to
the people and to his own slaves to carry away whatever they pleased. He
also scattered his property around with his own hand. When at last the house
was empty he closed the doors, set fire to it, and perished, and the fire
spread to many other parts of the city. Capito, through his half-opened
door, for a long time resisted those who had been sent against him, killing
them one by one. Finally, he was overpowered by numbers and slain after
killing single-handed many of his assailants. Vetulinus assembled around
Rhegium a large force of the proscribed and those who had fled with them,
and others from the eighteen cities which had been promised as rewards of
victory to the soldiers and who were indignant at such treatment. With these
men Vetulinus slew the centurions who were scouting thereabouts, until a
larger force was sent against him, and even then he did not desist, but
passed over to Sicily and joined Sextus Pompeius, who had mastered that
island and who received the fugitives. There he fought bravely until he was
defeated in several engagements. Then he sent his son and the remainder of
the proscribed who were with him to Messana, and when he saw that their boat
was passing the straits he dashed upon the enemy and was cut in pieces.
Naso, having been betrayed by a freedman who had been his favorite, snatched
a sword from one of the soldiers, and, having killed his betrayer with it,
surrendered himself to the murderers. A slave who was devoted to his master
left the latter on a hill while he went to the sea-shore to hire a boat. On
his return he found that his master had been killed, and while he was
breathing his last the slave called out to him, Wait a moment, my master.
whereupon he fell suddenly upon the centurion and slew him. Then he killed
himself, saying to his master, Now you have consolation.
Lucius placed his
gold in the hands of his two most faithful freedmen and started for the
seashore. They ran away with it, and he turned around, despairing of his
life, and gave himself up to the murderers. Labienus, who had captured and
killed many persons in the time of the proscription of Sulla, thought that
he would be disgraced if he did not bear himself bravely under similar
circumstances. So he.went to his front door, seated himself in a chair, and
waited for the murderers. Cestius concealed himself in the fields among
faithful slaves. When he saw centurions running hither and thither with
weapons and the heads of the proscribed he could not endure the prolonged
fear. He persuaded the slaves to light a funeral pyre, so that they might
say that they were paying the last rites to the dead Cestius. They were
deceived by him and lighted the pyre accordingly, whereupon he leaped into
it. Aponius concealed himself securely, but, as he could not endure the
meanness of his diet, he came forth and delivered himself to slaughter.
Another proscript voluntarily seated himself in full view, and, as the
murderers delayed their coming, he strangled himself in public.
Lucius, the father-in-law of Asinius, who was then consul, fled by sea, but,
as he could not endure the anguish of the tempest, he leaped overboard.
Sisinius fled from his pursuers, exclaiming that he was not proscribed, but
that they had conspired against him on account of his money. They brought
him to the proscription list and told him to read his name on it, and while
he was reading killed him. Aemilius, not knowing that he was
proscribed and seeing another man pursued, asked the pursuing centurion who
the proscribed man was. The centurion, recognizing Aemilius,
replied, You and he,
and killed them both. Cilo and Decius were going out
of the senate-house when they learned that their names were on the list of
the proscribed, but no one had yet gone in pursuit of them. They fled
incontinently through the city gates, and their running betrayed them to the
centurions whom they met on the road. Icilius, who was one of the judges in
the trial of Brutus and Cassius when Octavius presided over the tribunal
with his army, and who, when all the other judges deposited secret ballots
of condemnation, alone publicly deposited one of acquittal, now unmindful of
his former magnanimity and independence put his shoulder under a dead body
that was being conveyed to burial, and took a place among the carriers of
the bier. The guards at the city gates noticed that the number of
corpse-bearers was greater by one man than usual, but they did not suspect
the bearers. They only searched the bier to make sure that it was not
somebody counterfeiting a corpse, but, as the bearers fell into a dispute
with Icilius as not being a member of their trade, he was recognized by the
murderers and killed.
Varus, who was betrayed by a freedman, ran away, and after wandering from
mountain to mountain came to a marsh at Minturnae, where he stopped
to take rest. The inhabitants of Minturnae were mounting guard over
this marsh in search of robbers, and the agitation of the reeds revealed the
hiding-place of Varus. He was captured and said that he was a robber. He was
condemned to death and resigned himself to his fate, but as they were
preparing to subject him to torture to compel him to reveal his accomplices,
he could not bear such an indignity. I forbid you, citizens of
Minturnae,
he said, either to torture or to kill one who has been
a consul and — what is more important in the eyes of our present rulers —
also proscribed! If it is not permitted me to escape, I prefer to suffer at
the hands of my equals.
The Minturnians did not believe him. They
discredited his story until a centurion, who was scouting in that
neighborhood, recognized him, and cut off his head, leaving the remainder of
his body to the Minturnians. Largus was captured in the fields by soldiers
who were pursuing another man. They took pity on him because he had been
captured when they were not seeking him, and allowed him to escape in the
forest. Being pursued by others, he ran back to his first captors, saying,
I would rather that you, who had compassion on me, should kill me, so that
you may have the reward instead of those men.
Thus he recompensed them with
his death for their kindness to him.
Rufus possessed a handsome house near that of Fulvia, the wife of Antony,
which she had wanted to buy, but he would not sell it, and although he now
offered it to her as a free gift, he was proscribed. His head was brought to
Antony, who said it did not concern him and sent it to his wife.Antony ordered that it be brought nearer, and, after
looking at it carefully for some time, and while all were waiting to
hear what he would say, he remarked:
I have never known this
man.
The calamity extended to orphan children on account of their wealth. One of these, who was going to school, was killed, together with the attendant, who threw his arms around the boy and would not give him up. Atilius, who was just assuming the virile toga, went, as was customary, with a procession of friends to sacrifice in the temples. His name being put on the proscription list unexpectedly, his friends and servants ran away. Left alone, and bereft of his brilliant escort, he went to his mother. She was afraid to receive him. As he did not consider it safe to ask help from anybody else after his mother had failed him, he fled to a mountain. Hunger drove him down to the plain, where he was captured by a robber and committed to a workhouse. The delicate boy, unable to endure the toil, escaped to the high road with his fetters, revealed himself to some passing centurions, and was killed.
While these events were taking place Lepidus enjoyed a triumph for his
exploits in Spain, and an edict was displayed in the following terms: In
God’s name, let it be proclaimed to all men and women that they celebrate
this day with sacrifices and feasting. Whoever shall fail to do so shall be
put on the list of the proscribed.
Lepidus led the triumphal procession to
the Capitol, accompanied by all the citizens, who showed the external
appearance of joy, but were sad at heart. The houses of the proscribed were
gutted, but there were not many buyers of their lands. Some were ashamed to
add to the burdens of the unfortunate. Others thought that such property
would bring them bad luck, or that it would not be quite safe for them to be
seen with gold and silver in their possession, or that, as they were not
free from danger with their present holdings, it would be extra-hazardous to
increase them. Only the boldest spirits came forward and purchased at the
lowest prices, because they were the only buyers. Thus it came to pass that
the triumvirs, who had hoped to realize a sufficient sum for their
preparations, were short 20,000,000 of drachmas.
The triumvirs addressed the people on this subject and published an edict
requiring 1400 of the richest women to make a
valuation of their property, and to furnish for the service of the war such
portion as the triumvirs should require from each. It was provided further
that if any should conceal their property or make a false valuation they
should be fined, and that rewards should be given to informers, whether free
persons or slaves. The women resolved to beseech the female relatives of the
triumvirs. With the sister of Octavius and the mother of Antony they did not
fail, but they were repulsed from the doors of Fulvia, the wife of Antony,
whose rudeness they could scarce endure. They then forced their way to the
tribunal of the triumvirs in the forum, the people and the guards dividing
to let them pass. There, through the mouth of Hortensia, they spoke as
follows, according to previous arrangement: As is befitting women of our
rank addressing a petition to you, we had recourse to your female relatives.
Having suffered unseemly treatment on the part of Fulvia, we have been
compelled by her to visit the forum. You have deprived us of our fathers,
our sons, our husbands, and our brothers, whom you accused of having wronged
you. If you take away our property also, you reduce us to a condition
unbecoming our birth, our manners, our sex. If we have done you wrong, as
you say our husbands have, proscribe us as you do them. If we women have not
voted you public enemies, have not torn down your houses, destroyed your
army, or led another one against you; if we have not hindered you in
obtaining offices and honors, — why do you visit upon us the same
punishment as upon the guilty, whose offences we have not shared?
Why should we pay taxes when we have no part in the honors, the commands,
the state-craft, for which you contend against each other with such harmful
results?
Because this is a time of war,
do you say? When have there not
been wars, and when have taxes ever been imposed on women, who are exempted
by their sex among all mankind? Our mothers once for all rose superior to
their sex and made contributions when you were in danger of losing the whole
empire and the city itself through the conflict with the Carthaginians. But
then they contributed voluntarily, not from their landed property, their
fields, their dowries, or their houses, without which life is not possible
to free women, but only from their own jewellery, and not according to fixed
valuation, not under fear of informers or accusers, not by force and
violence, but what they themselves were willing to give. Who now causes you
alarm for the empire or the country? Let war with the Gauls or the Parthians
come, and we shall not be inferior to our mothers in zeal for the common
safety; but for civil wars may we never contribute, nor ever assist you
against each other. We did not contribute to Caesar or to Pompey.
Neither Marius nor Cinna imposed taxes upon us. Nor did Sulla, who held
despotic power in the state, do so, whereas you say that you are
reëstablishing the commonwealth.Hortensia, the daughter of Q. Hortensius, when the matrons
of Rome were burdened with a heavy tax by the triumvirs and no man dared
undertake their defence, pleaded the cause of the women before the
triumvirs with firmness and success. By the faithful reproduction of her
father’s eloquence she succeeded in getting the greater part of the
pecuniary impost remitted. Quintus Hortensius lived again in his female
line. He breathed once more in the words of his daughter. If his male
descendants had been willing to follow this vigorous example, the
eloquence of Hortensius, so great a heritage, would not have been
reduced to a single pleading of a woman.
(
When Hortensia had thus spoken the triumvirs were angry that women should dare to hold a public meeting when the men were silent; that they should demand from magistrates the reasons for their acts, and not furnish money while the men were serving in the army. They ordered the lictors to drive them away from the tribunal, which they proceeded to do until cries were raised by the multitude outside, when the lictors desisted and the triumvirs said they would postpone till the next day the consideration of the matter. On the following day they reduced the number of women, who were to present a valuation of their property, from 1400 to 400, and decreed that all men who possessed more than 100,000 drachmas, both citizens and strangers, freedmen and priests, and men of all nationalities without a single exception, should (under the same dread of penalty and also of informers) lend them at interest a fiftieth part of their property and contribute one year’s income to the war expenses.
Such calamities befell the Romans from the orders of the triumvirs. Even worse ones were visited upon them by the soldiers in disregard of orders. Believing that they alone enabled the triumvirs to do what they were doing with impunity, some of them asked for the confiscated houses, or fields, or villas, or entire property of the proscribed. Others demanded that they should be made the adopted sons of rich men. Others, of their own motion, killed men who had not been proscribed, and plundered the houses of those who were not under accusation, so that the triumvirs were obliged to publish an edict that one of the consuls should put a restraint upon those who were exceeding their orders. The consul did not dare to touch the soldiers lest he should excite their rage against himself, but he seized and crucified certain slaves who were masquerading as soldiers and committing outrages in company with them.
Such are examples of the extreme misfortunes that befell the proscribed. Instances where some were unexpectedly saved and at a later period raised to positions of honor are more agreeable to me to relate, and will be more useful to my readers, as showing that hope should not be abandoned in adverse circumstances. Some, who were able to do so, fled to Cassius, or to Brutus, or to Africa, where Cornificius upheld the republican cause. The greater number, however, went to Sicily because of its nearness to Italy, where Sextus Pompeius received them gladly. The latter showed the most admirable zeal in behalf of the unfortunate at this crisis, sending heralds who invited all to come to him, and offered to those who should save the proscribed, both slaves and free persons, double the rewards that had been offered for killing them. His small boats and merchant ships met those who were escaping by sea, and his war-ships sailed along the shore and made signals to those wandering there and saved such as they found. Pompeius himself met the newcomers and provided them at once with clothing and other necessaries. To those who were worthy he assigned commands in his military and naval forces. When, at a later period, he entered into negotiations with the triumvirs, he would not conclude a treaty without embracing in its terms those who had taken refuge with him. In this way he rendered to his unfortunate country the greatest service, from which he gained a high reputation of his own in addition to that which he had inherited from his father, and not less than that. Others escaped by concealing themselves in various ways, some in the fields or in the tombs, others in the city itself, undergoing cruel anxiety until peace was restored. Remarkable examples were shown of the love of wives for their husbands, of sons for their fathers, and of slaves for their masters, quite beyond expectation. Some of the most remarkable of these I shall now relate.
Paulus, the brother of Lepidus, made his escape to Brutus by the connivance
of the centurions who respected him as the brother of the triumvir. After
the death of Brutus he went to Miletus, which he refused to leave after
peace was restored, although he was invited to return. The mother of Antony
gave shelter to her brother Lucius, Antony’s uncle, without concealment, and
the centurions had respect for her for a long time as the mother of the
triumvir. When, later, they attempted to do violence to him, she dashed into
the forum where Antony was seated with his colleagues, and exclaimed, I
denounce myself to you, triumvir, for having received Lucius under my roof
and for still keeping him, and I shall keep him till you kill us both
together, for it is decreed that those who give shelter shall suffer the
same punishment.
Antony reproached her for being an unreasonable mother,
although a good sister, saying that she ought to have prevented Lucius in
the first place from voting her son a public enemy instead of seeking to
save him now. Nevertheless, he procured from the consul Plancus a decree
restoring Lucius to citizenship.
Messala, a young man of distinction, fled to Brutus. The triumvirs, fearing
his high spirit, published the following edict: Since the relatives of
Messala have made it clear to us that he was not in the city when Gaius
Caesar was slain, let his name be removed from the list of the
proscribed.
He would not accept pardon, but, after Brutus and Cassius had
fallen in Thrace, although there was a considerable army left, as well as
ships and money, and although strong hopes of success still existed, Messala
would not accept the command when it was offered to him, but persuaded his
associates to yield to overpowering fate and join forces with Antony. He
became intimate with Antony and adhered to him until the latter became the
slave of Cleopatra. Then he heaped reproaches upon him and joined himself to
Octavius, who made him consul in place of Antony himself when the latter was
deposed and again voted a public enemy. After the battle of Actium, where he
held a naval command against Antony, Octavius sent him as a general against
the revolted Celts and awarded him a triumph for his victory over them.
Acilius fled from the city secretly. His hiding-place was disclosed by a slave to the soldiers, but he prevailed upon them, by the hope of a larger reward, to send some of their number to his wife with a private token that he gave them. When they came she gave them all of her jewellery, saying that she gave it in return for what they had promised, although she. did not know whether they would keep their agreement. But her fidelity to her husband was not disappointed, for the soldiers hired a ship for Acilius and conducted him to Sicily. The wife of Lentulus asked that she might accompany him in his flight and kept watch upon his movements for that purpose, but he was not willing that she should share his danger, and fled secretly to Sicily. Being appointed praetor there by Pompeius he sent word to her that he was saved and elevated to office. When she learned in what part of the earth her husband was she escaped with two slaves from her mother, who was keeping watch over her. With these she travelled in the guise of a slave, with great hardship and the meanest fare, until she was able to make the passage from Rhegium to Messana about nightfall. She learned without difficulty where the praetor’s tent was, and there she found Lentulus, not in the attitude of a praetor, but on a low pallet with unkempt hair and wretched food, mourning for his wife.
The wife of Apuleius threatened that, if he should fly without her, she would
give information against him. So he took her with him unwillingly, and he
succeeded in avoiding suspicion in his flight by travelling with his wife
and his male and female slaves in a public manner. The wife of Antius
wrapped him up in a clothes-bag and gave the bundle to some porters to carry
from the house to the sea-shore, whence he made his escape to Sicily. The
wife of Rheginus concealed him in a sewer by night. The soldiers were not
willing to follow him there in the daytime, on account of the foul odor. The
next night she fixed him up as a charcoal dealer, and furnished him an ass
to drive, carrying coals. She led the way at a short distance, borne in a
litter. One of the soldiers at the city gates suspected the litter and
searched it. Rheginus was alarmed and hastened his steps, and as he passed
along admonished the soldier not to give trouble to women. The latter, who
took him for a charcoal dealer, answered him angrily, but suddenly
recognizing him (for he had served under him in Syria), said, Go on your
way rejoicing, general, for such I ought still to call you.
The wife of
Coponius obtained his safety by yielding herself to Antony, although she had
previously been chaste, thus curing one evil with another.
The son of Geta pretended to burn his father’s remains in the courtyard of
his house, making people believe that he had strangled himself. Then he
conveyed him secretly to a newly bought field and left him. There the old
man changed his appearance by putting a bandage over one of his eyes. After
the return of peace he took off the bandage and found that he had lost the
sight of that eye by disuse. Oppius, by reason of the infirmities of age,
was unwilling to fly, but his son carried him on his shoulder till he had
brought him outside the gates. The remainder of the journey as far as Sicily
he accomplished partly by leading and partly by carrying him, nobody
suspecting the trick and nobody troubling him. In like manner they say that
Aeneas was respected even by his enemies when carrying his father.
In admiration of his piety the people in later days elected the young man to
the aedileship, and since his property had been confiscated and he
could not defray the expenses of the office [for public games], the artisans
performed the work appertaining thereto without pay, and each of the
spectators tossed such money as he could afford to give into the
orchestra,Here lies one who, when proscribed, was
concealed by his son, who had not been proscribed, but who fled with him and
saved him.
There were two men named Metellus, father and son. The father held a command
under Antony at the battle of Actium and was taken prisoner, but not
recognized. The son fought on the side of Octavius and held a command under
him at the same battle. When Octavius looked over the prisoners at Samos the
son was sitting with him. The old man was led forward covered with hair,
misery, and dirt, and completely metamorphosed by them. When his name was
called by the herald in the array of prisoners the son sprang from his seat,
and, with difficulty recognizing his father, embraced him with a cry of
anguish. Then restraining his lamentation he said to Octavius,
There was much emotion on all sides,
and Octavius spared Metellus, although he had been bitterly hostile to
himself and had scorned many offers made to him to desert Antony. He
was your enemy, I was your fellow-soldier. He has earned your punishment, I
your reward. I ask you either to spare my father on my account, or to kill
me at the same time on his account.
The slaves of Marcus guarded him with fidelity and success within his own
house during the whole period of the proscription until there was nothing
more to fear, when Marcus came out of his house as though from exile.
Hirtius escaped from the city with his household servants and traversed
Italy releasing prisoners, collecting runaways, and ravaging small towns at
first and afterward large ones, until he found himself possessed of
sufficient force to master Bruttium. When an army was sent against him he
crossed the straits with his forces and joined Pompeius. When Restio fled,
thinking that he was alone, he was followed secretly by a slave, who had
been brought up by himself and had been very well treated by him formerly,
but had lately been branded for bad conduct. While Restio was stopping in a
marsh the slave came up to him. He was startled at the sight, but the slave
said that he did not feel the pain of the brand so much as he remembered the
former kindness shown to him. Then he found a resting-place for his master
in a cave, and by working procured such sustenance for him as he could. The
soldiers in the neighborhood of the cave had their suspicions aroused
concerning Restio, and went to it. The slave observed their movements and
followed them, and, seeing an old man walking in front of them, he ran up
and killed him and cut off his head. The soldiers were astounded. They
arrested him for a highwayman, but he said, I have killed Restio, my
master, the man who marked me with these scars.
The soldiers took the head
from him for the sake of the reward, and made haste to the city to no
purpose. The slave brought his master away and conveyed him by ship to
Sicily.
Appion was resting at his country-place when the soldiers burst in. A slave
put on his master’s clothes and threw himself on his bed and voluntarily
died for his master, who was standing beside him dressed as a slave.
Sergius was concealed at the house of Antony himself until Antony persuaded
the consul Plancus to procure a decree of amnesty for him. At a later
period, when Octavius and Antony had fallen into disagreement, and when the
Senate was voting Antony a public enemy, Sergius alone cast his vote openly
in the negative. The following named persons were saved as I shall now
relate. Pomponius arrayed himself in the garb of a praetor and
disguised his slaves as his official attendants. He passed through the city
as a praetor attended by lictors, his attendants pressing close to
him lest he should be recognized. At the city gates he took possession of
public carriages and traversed Italy in the character of a praetor
sent by the triumvirs to conduct negotiations with Pompeius, all the people
receiving him and sending him on as such, until he entered into a public
ship and passed over to Pompeius.
Apuleius and Aruntius assumed the character of centurions, armed their slaves as soldiers, and passed through the gates pretending to be in pursuit of other persons. For the remainder of their course they took different roads. They released prisoners and collected fugitives until a sufficient force was obtained by each to display the standards, the equipment, and the appearance of an army. When they arrived at the sea-shore they took position on either side of a certain hill and contemplated each other with great apprehension. At daybreak the next morning, after reconnoitring each other from the hillside, each army took the other for an army sent against itself, and they actually came to blows and fought until they discovered their error, when they dropped their arms and broke into lamentations, blaming the hard fate that pursued them everywhere. Then they took ship, and one of them sailed to Brutus and the other to Pompeius. The latter was included in the reconciliation with Pompeius. The former took command of Bithynia for Brutus, and when Brutus fell he surrendered Bithynia to Antony and was restored to citizenship. When Ventidius was proscribed one of his freedmen put fetters on him as though intending to deliver him to the murderers. But at night he gave instructions to some slaves, whom he armed as soldiers, and then he led his master forth in the character of a centurion, and traversed the whole of Italy as far as Sicily, and often passed the night in company with other centurions who were in search of Ventidius.
Another proscript was concealed by a freedman in a tomb, but as he could not
endure the horror of the place he was transferred to a miserable hired
hovel. A soldier was lodged near him, and as he could not endure this fear
he changed from a feeling of cowardice to the most wonderful audacity. He
cut off his hair and opened a school in Rome itself, which he taught until
the return of peace. Volusius was proscribed while holding the office of
aedile. He had a friend who was a priest of Isis, whose robe he
begged. He clothed himself with this linen garment reaching to his feet, put
on the dog’s head, and thus celebrating the mysteries of Isis he made the
journey to Pompeius. The inhabitants of CalesThree Headed Monster.
Virginius, an orator of distinction, told his slaves that if they should kill
him for a small and uncertain reward they would be filled with remorse and
terror afterward, while if they should save him they would enjoy an
excellent reputation and good hopes, and, later, a much larger and more
certain reward. So they fled, taking him with them in the guise of a
fellow-slave, and when he was recognized on the road they fought against the
soldiers. Being captured by the latter, he told them that they had no reason
for killing him except for money, and that they would get a more honorable
reward and a larger one by going with him to the sea-shore, where,
said
he, my wife has arranged to bring a ship with money.
They followed his
suggestion and went with him to the sea-shore. His wife had come to the
rendezvous according to agreement, but as Virginius had been delayed, she
thought that he had already sailed to Pompeius. So she had embarked, leaving
a slave at the rendezvous, however, to tell him if he should come. When the
slave saw Virginius he ran up as though to his master, and pointed out to
him the ship which had just started, and told him about his wife and the
money and why he (the slave) had been left behind. The soldiers now believed
all that they heard, and when Virginius asked them to wait till his wife
could be called back, or to go with him after her to obtain the money, they
embarked in a small boat and conveyed him to Sicily, rowing with all their
might. There they received what had been promised them, and they did not go
back, but remained in his service until peace was declared. A ship captain
received Rebilus in his vessel in order to convey him to Sicily and then
demanded money, threatening to betray him if he did not get it. Rebilus
followed the example of Themistocles when he fled. He threatened in turn
that he would tell how the captain was helping a proscript to escape for
money. The captain was afraid, and he carried Rebilus over to Pompeius.He now alarmed the
captain by telling who he was and why he was fleeing, and said that,
unless the captain should rescue him, he would tell that he was
conveying him away for a bribe. He added that their safety could be
secured if nobody was allowed to leave the ship until the voyage was
finished,
etc. (
Marcus was one of the lieutenants of Brutus and was proscribed for that
reason. When Brutus was defeated he was captured. He pretended to be a slave
and was bought by Barbula. The latter, perceiving that he was skilful,
placed him over his fellow-slaves and gave him charge of his private
disbursements. As he was clever in all respects and superior in intelligence
to the condition of a slave, his master had suspicions and encouraged him to
hope that if he would confess that he was one of the proscribed he (Barbula)
would procure his pardon. He denied stoutly, and gave himself a feigned name
and family and former masters. Barbula brought him to Rome, expecting that
if he were a proscript he would show reluctance to come, but he followed all
the same. One of Barbula’s friends, who met him at the gates, saw Marcus
standing by his side in the character of a slave, and privately told Barbula
who he was. The latter obtained from Octavius, through the intercession of
Agrippa, the erasure of the name of Marcus from the proscription. The latter
became a friend of Octavius, and some time later served as his lieutenant
against Antony at the battle of Actium. Barbula was then serving with
Antony, and the fortune of both of them was reversed. For when Antony was
vanquished Barbula was taken prisoner and he pretended to be a slave, and
Marcus bought him, pretending not to know him. Then he laid the whole matter
before Octavius and asked that he might compensate Barbula with a like
service, and his request was granted. Like good fortune attended them in
after times, for they both held the chief magistracy in the city the same
year.
Balbinus took refuge with Pompeius and was restored with him, and became
consul not long afterward. Lepidus, who had meanwhile been deposed from the
triumvirate by Octavius and reduced to private life, presented himself to
Balbinus under the following stress. Maecenas prosecuted the son of
Lepidus for The accusers testify to my innocence,
since they say that I was not an accomplice of my wife and son. I did not
cause you to be proscribed, yet I am now inferior to the proscribed.
Consider the mutability of human affairs and grant to one, who stands by
your side, the favor of becoming security for my wife’s appearance before
Octavius, or let me go there with her.
When Lepidus had thus spoken,
Balbinus took pity on his reverse of fortune and released his wife from bail
altogether.
Cicero, the son of Cicero, had been sent away to Greece by his father, who anticipated these evils. From Greece he proceeded to join Brutus, and after the latter’s death he joined Pompeius, by both of whom he was honored with a military command. Afterward Octavius, by way of apology for his betrayal of Cicero, caused him to be appointed augur, and not long afterward consul and then proconsul of Syria. When the news of the overthrow of Antony at Actium was forwarded by Octavius this same Cicero, as consul, announced it to the people and affixed it to the rostra where formerly his father’s head had been exhibited. Appius distributed his goods among his slaves and then sailed with them to Sicily. Being overtaken by a storm, the slaves formed a plot to get possession of his money, and placed Appius in a small boat, pretending to transfer him to a safer place; but it turned out that he reached port most unexpectedly, while their ship was wrecked and they all perished. Publius, quaestor of Brutus, was solicited by the party of Antony to betray his chief, but refused, and was for that reason proscribed. Afterward he was restored to citizenship and became a friend of Octavius. Once when Octavius came to visit him Publius showed him some images of Brutus, and Octavius praised him for doing so. Such were some of the most remarkable cases where the proscribed were lost or saved. Many others I have omitted.
While these transactions were taking place at Rome all the outlying countries were torn by hostilities growing out of the same commotion. Chief among these wars was the one in Africa between Cornificius and Sextius, the one in Syria between Cassius and Dolabella, and the one against Pompeius around Sicily. Many cities suffered the calamity of capture by siege. I shall pass by the smaller ones and confine myself to the largest, and especially the very celebrated ones of Laodicea, Tarsus, Rhodes, Patara, and Xanthus. I shall relate briefly what took place at each of these.
That part of Africa which the Romans took from the Carthaginians they still call Old Africa. The part that belonged to King Juba, and which was taken by Gaius Caesar at a later period, they call for that reason New Africa; it might also be called Numidian Africa. Accordingly Sextius, who held the government of New Africa as the appointee of Octavius, summoned Cornificius to abandon Old Africa to him because the whole country had been assigned to Octavius in the allotment of the triumvirs. Cornificius replied that he did not know what allotment the triumvirs had made among themselves, and that since he had received the government from the Senate he would not surrender it to anybody else without the order of the Senate. This was the origin of hostilities between them. Cornificius had the heavier and more numerous army. That of Sextius was more nimble though inferior in number, by which means he was enabled to dash around and detach from Cornificius his inland districts until he was besieged by Ventidius, a lieutenant of Cornificius, who brought against him superior forces and whom he resisted valiantly. Laelius, another lieutenant of Cornificius, ravaged the province of Sextius, sat down before the city of Cirta, and laid siege to it.
Both parties sent ambassadors to secure the alliance of King Arabio and of
the so-called Sittians, who received their name from the following
circumstance. A certain Sittius,
Thus encouraged Sextius made a sortie by which Ventidius was killed and his army put to headlong flight. Sextius pursued them, killing and taking prisoners. When Laelius heard the news he raised the siege of Cirta and joined Cornificius. Sextius, elated by his success, advanced against Cornificius himself at Utica and encamped opposite him, although the latter had the superior force. Cornificius sent Laelius with his cavalry to make a reconnoissance, and Sextius ordered Arabio to engage him with his own cavalry in front, and Sextius himself with his light troops fell upon the enemy’s flank and threw them into such confusion that Laelius, although not vanquished, feared lest his retreat should be cut off and took possession of a hill near by. Arabio hung upon his rear, killed many, and surrounded the hill. When Cornificius saw this he sallied out with a larger force to assist Laelius. Sextius, who was in his rear, dashed up and attacked him, but Cornificius turned upon him and drove him back, although suffering severely.
Meanwhile Arabio, with a band of men accustomed to climbing rocks, scaled a precipice to the camp of Cornificius and stole into it unobserved. When the camp was captured Roscius, the custodian, offered his throat to one of his assistants and was killed. Cornificius, overcome by the fatigue of the engagement, retired toward Laelius on the hill, not yet knowing what had happened to his camp. While he was retreating the cavalry of Arabio charged upon him and killed him, and when Laelius, looking down from the hill, saw what had happened he killed himself. When the leaders had fallen the soldiers fled in various directions. Of the proscribed who were with Cornificius, some crossed over to Sicily, others took refuge wherever they could. Sextius gave great spoils to Arabio and the Sittians. He brought the cities into allegiance to Octavius and granted pardon to all. This was the end of the war in Africa between Sextius and Cornificius, which seemed inconsiderable by reason of the rapidity with which it was prosecuted.
Resuming the narrative of Cassius and Brutus, I shall repeat some small part of what has already been said, in order to refresh the memory. When Caesar was assassinated his murderers took possession of the Capitol, and when amnesty was voted to them they came down. The people were greatly moved at Caesar’s funeral and scoured the city in pursuit of his murderers. The latter defended themselves from the roofs of their houses, and those of them who had been appointed by Caesar himself as governors of provinces departed from the city forthwith. Cassius and Brutus were still city praetors. Cassius had been chosen by Caesar as governor of Syria and Brutus of Macedonia. As they could not enter at once upon these offices, and as they were afraid to remain in the city, they took their departure while still praetors, and the Senate, for the sake of appearances, gave them charge of the supply of corn, so that they might not seem to have taken flight in the interval. After they had gone, the provinces of Syria and Macedonia were transferred to the consuls Dolabella and Antony much against the will of the Senate. Nevertheless, Cyrene and Crete were given to Brutus and Cassius in exchange. These provinces they despised because of their insignificance, and, accordingly, they set about raising troops and money in order to invade Syria and Macedonia.
While they were thus engaged Dolabella put Trebonius to death in Asia and
Antony besieged Decimus Brutus in Cisalpine Gaul. The Senate in indignation
voted both Dolabella and Antony public enemies, and restored both Brutus and
Cassius to the former commands and added Illyria to that of Brutus. It also
ordered all other persons holding commands of Roman provinces or armies,
between the Adriatic and Syria, to obey the orders of Cassius and Brutus.
Thereupon Cassius anticipated Dolabella by entering Syria, where he raised
the standards of a governor and won over twelve legions of soldiers who had
been enlisted and trained by Gaius Caesar long before. One of these
Caesar had left in Syria when he was contemplating a war against
the Parthians, and had placed it under the charge of Caecilius
Bassus, but had given the nominal command to Sextus Julius, a young man who
was his kinsman.
Cassius speedily intervened in this siege and took command at once of the army of Bassus with its consent, and afterward of the legions of Murcus and Marcius, who surrendered them to him in a friendly way and in pursuance of the decree of the Senate, which they obeyed in all respects. About the same time Allienus, who had been sent to Egypt by Dolabella, brought from that country four legions composed of men who had been dispersed after the disasters of Pompey and Crassus, and who had been left with Cleopatra by Caesar. Cassius surrounded him in Palestine unexpectedly, while he was in ignorance of what had happened, and compelled him to come to terms and surrender his army, as he did not dare to fight with four legions against eight. Thus in a marvellous manner Cassius came into possession of twelve first-rate legions, to whom were added a certain number of Parthian mounted bowmen, who were attracted by the reputation he had acquired among them from the time when, as quaestor to Crassus, he had shown himself to be more skilful than that general.
Dolabella was spending his time in Ionia, having put Trebonius to death,
levied tribute on the towns, and hired a naval force, by means of Lucius
Figulus, from the Rhodians, Lycians, Pamphylians, and Cilicians. When this
was in readiness he advanced toward Syria, leading two legions by land while
Figulus proceeded by sea. After he had learned of the forces of Cassius he
passed on to Laodicea,Then he made several attempts to gain entrance by force, but was
each time repulsed with severe loss. After losing about a hundred men he
fled by night from Antioch in the direction of Laodicea, leaving his
sick and wounded. That night nearly all of his Asiatic troops deserted
him, and 800 of them returned to Antioch and surrendered themselves to
the officers whom Cassius had left to guard the town. The remainder, of
whom my informants were a part, came into Cilicia by way of Mount
Amanus. They said that Cassius, with his entire army, was only four
days’ march from Laodicea when Dolabella started thither, for which
reason I am confident that this most infamous robber will get his
deserts sooner than we had anticipated.
(
Being refused by all except the Sidonians, he came to a naval engagement with Dolabella, in which a number of ships were sunk on both sides and Dolabella captured five with their crews. Then Cassius again sent to those who had rejected his application, and also to Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, and to Serapio, her viceroy in Cyprus. The Tyrians, the Aradii, and Serapio, without consulting Cleopatra, sent Cassius what ships they had. The queen excused herself on the ground that Egypt was at that time suffering from famine and pestilence, but she was really cooperating with Dolabella on account of her relations with the elder Caesar. This was the reason why she had sent him the four legions by Allienus, and had another fleet ready to assist him, which was kept back by adverse winds. The Rhodians and the Lycians said that they would help neither Cassius nor Brutus in civil wars, and that when they supplied ships to Dolabella they furnished them as an escort, not knowing that they were to be used as allies in war.
When Cassius was again ready with the forces in hand he engaged Dolabella a second time. The first battle was doubtful, but in the next one Dolabella was beaten on the sea. Then Cassius completed his mound and battered Dolabella’s walls till they trembled. He tried unsuccessfully to corrupt Marsus, the captain of the night-watch, but he bribed the centurions of the day force and, while Marsus was taking his rest, effected an entrance by daylight through a number of small gates that were secretly opened to him one after another. When the city was taken Dolabella offered his head to his own body-guard and told him to cut it off and carry it to Cassius in order to secure his own safety. The guard cut it off, but he killed himself also, and Marsus took his own life. Cassius swore Dolabella’s army into his own service. He plundered the temples and the treasury of Laodicea, punished the chief citizens, and exacted very heavy contributions from the rest, so that the city was reduced to the extremest misery.
After the capture of Laodicea Cassius turned his attention to Egypt. Having learned that Cleopatra was about to join Octavius and Antony with a strong fleet, he purposed to prevent its sailing and to punish the queen for her intention. He had before this thought that the condition of Egypt was especially favorable for these designs, because it was wasted by famine and had no considerable foreign army, now that the forces of Allienus had taken their departure. In the midst of his eagerness, his hopes, and his opportunity came a hasty summons from Brutus telling him that Octavius and Antony were crossing the Adriatic. Cassius reluctantly gave up his hopes in respect of Egypt. He also sent back his Parthian mounted bowmen with presents, and with them ambassadors to their king asking for a larger force of auxiliaries. This force arrived after the decisive battle, ravaged Syria and many of the neighboring provinces as far as Ionia, and then returned home. Cassius left his nephew in Syria with one legion and sent his cavalry in advance into Cappadocia, who presently killed Ariobarzanes for plotting against Cassius. Then they seized his large treasures and other military supplies and brought them to Cassius.
The people of Tarsus were divided into factions. One of these factions had crowned Cassius, who was the first to arrive. The other had done the same for Dolabella, who came later. Both had acted thus in the name of the city. As the inhabitants bestowed their honors upon each alternately, each of them treated it despitefully as a fickleminded place. After Cassius had overcome Dolabella he levied a contribution on it of 1500 talents. Being unable to find the money, and being pressed for payment with violence by the soldiers, the people sold all their public property and after that they coined all the sacred articles used in religious processions and the temple offerings into money. As this was not sufficient, the magistrates sold free persons into bondage, first girls and boys, afterward women and miserable old men, who brought a very small price, and finally young men. Most of these committed suicide. Finally Cassius, on his return from Syria, took pity on their sufferings and released them from the remainder of the contribution. Such were the calamities that befell Tarsus and Laodicea.
When Brutus and Cassius had their conference,
The Rhodians of distinction were alarmed at the prospect of a conflict with
Romans, but the common people were in high spirits, because they recalled
former victories achieved over men of different character. They launched
thirty-three of their best ships, but while doing so they sent messengers to
Myndus nevertheless to urge Cassius not to despise Rhodes, which had always
defended herself against those who underestimated her, and not to disregard
the treaty which existed between the Rhodians and the Romans which bound
them not to bear arms against each other. If he complained of them for not
rendering military assistance, they would be glad to hear from the Roman
Senate, and if called upon they would lend such assistance. When they had
spoken thus Cassius replied that as to the other matters
Nevertheless, they sent still another ambassador to Cassius in the person of
Archelaus, who had been his teacher in Greek literature in Rhodes, to
present a more earnest petition. This he did, taking Cassius by the right
hand in a familiar manner, and saying, O friend of the Greeks, do not
subvert a Greek city. O friend of freedom, do not attack Rhodes. Do not put
to shame the glory of a Doric state hitherto unvanquished. Do not forget the
famous histories you learned both at Rhodes and at Rome — at Rhodes, what
the Rhodians accomplished against states and kings (and especially against
Demetrius and Mithridates, who were deemed invincible), in behalf of that
freedom for which you say that you also are now contending — at Rome, our
services to you, among others those that were rendered when we fought with
you against Antiochus the Great, concerning which you have monuments
inscribed in our honor. So much, O Roman, for our race, our dignity, our
condition hitherto unenslaved, our alliance, and our good-will toward you.
As for you, Cassius, you owe a peculiar reverence to this city in which you
were brought up and educated, restored to health when sick, where you had
your hearthstone, and where you attended my very school. You owe respect to
me who have hoped that I should some time plume myself on your education
with different hopes, but I am now pleading this relation in behalf of my
country, lest it be forced into a war with you, its pupil and its ward,
where one of two things must necessarily happen: either that the Rhodians
perish utterly, or Cassius be defeated. In addition to my entreaty I give
you the advice that while engaged in such important tasks in behalf of the
Roman commonwealth you take the gods for your leaders at every step. You,
Romans, swore by the gods when you recently concluded the treaty with us
through Gaius Caesar, and to the oaths you added libations and gave
the right hand, which is valid even among enemies, not to mention friends
and wards. Besides dreading the judgment of the gods, have regard for the
opinions of mankind, who consider nothing more base than a violation of
treaties, which causes the violators to be distrusted in all respects by
both friends and enemies.
When the old man had thus spoken he did not let go Cassius’ hand, but shed
tears on it, so that Cassius blushed at the spectacle and was moved somewhat
by the sense of shame, yet he drew away his hand, and said, If you have not
counselled the Rhodians not to wrong me, you have yourself done me wrong. If
you have so counselled them and they have not followed your advice I will
avenge you. That I have suffered injury is plain enough. The first wrong
done me was when I asked assistance and was slighted by my guardians and
instructors. In the next place they gave the preference to Dolabella, whom
they had not brought up and educated, rather than to me. And what makes it
worse, O freedom-loving Rhodians, is that Brutus and I and the noblest men
of the Senate, whom you see here, were fugitives from tyranny for
endeavoring to liberate their country, while Dolabella was seeking to
enslave it to others, whom you also favor while pretending to abstain from
our civil wars. This would be a civil war if we also were aiming at supreme
power, but it is plainly a war of the republic against monarchy. And you,
who appeal to me in behalf of your own freedom, have refused aid to the
republic. While professing friendship for the Romans you have no pity for
those who have been sentenced to death and confiscation without trial. You
pretend that you want to hear from the Senate, which is suffering from these
very evils and is not yet able to defend itself. But the Senate had answered
you beforehand when it decreed that all the peoples of the Orient should
lend aid to Brutus and myself.
Whatever aid you have rendered us when we were adding to our possessions
(for which you reaped an abundant reward) you remind us of, but when in our
time of adversity you fail us in the struggle for freedom and safety, you
have very short memories. Even if we had had no relations with each other
before, you ought, as members of the Doric race, to be willing to begin now
to fight for the Roman republic. Instead of such thoughts and deeds you
quote to us treaties, — treaties made with you by Gaius Caesar,
the founder of the present monarchy, — yet these very treaties say that the
Romans and the Rhodians shall assist each other in case of need. Therefore,
assist the Romans in the time of their greatest peril! It is Cassius who
quotes these very treaties to you and calls for your help in war, —
Cassius, a Roman citizen and a Roman general, whom, as the Senate’s decree
says, all the countries beyond the Adriatic are required to obey. The same
decrees are presented to you by Brutus, and also by Pompeius, who has been
invested by the Senate with the command of the sea. Added to these decrees
are the prayers of all these senators who have fled, some to myself and
Brutus, and others to Pompeius. The treaty provides that the Rhodians shall
lend aid to the Romans even in cases where the application is made by single
individuals. If you do not consider us as generals or even as Romans, but as
exiles, or strangers, or persons condemned, as the proscribers call us, O
Rhodians, you have no treaties with us, but only with the Roman people.
Being strangers and foreigners to the treaties, we will fight you till you
obey our orders in everything.
With this ironical remark Cassius sent
Archelaus away.
Alexander and Mnaseas, the Rhodian leaders, put to sea with their thirty-three ships against Cassius at Myndus, intending to surprise him by the suddenness of their attack. They built their hopes somewhat lightly on the supposition that by sailing against Mithridates at Myndus they had brought that war to a successful end. In order to display their seamanship they took their station the first day at Cnidus. The next day they showed themselves to the forces of Cassius on the high sea. The latter in astonishment put to sea against them, and it was a battle of strength and skill on both sides. The Rhodians with their light ships darted swiftly through the enemy’s line, turned around, and attacked them in the rear. The Romans had heavier ships, and whenever they could come to close quarters they prevailed, as in an engagement on land, by their greater strength. Cassius, by reason of his more numerous fleet, was enabled to surround his enemy, and then the latter could no longer turn and dart through his line. When they could only attack in front and then haul off, their nautical skill was of no avail in the narrow space where they were confined. The ramming with their prows and broadside movements against the heavier Roman ships did little damage, while those of the Romans against the lighter vessels were more effective. Finally, three Rhodian ships were captured with their crews, two were rammed and sunk, and the remainder took flight to Rhodes in a damaged condition. All of the Roman ships returned to Myndus, where they were repaired, the greater part having suffered injury.
Such was the result of the naval engagement of the Romans and the Rhodians at
Myndus. Cassius watched the fight while it was going on from the summit of a
mountain. When he had repaired his ships he sailed to Loryma, a fortified
place belonging to the Rhodians on the mainland opposite the island, from
which he sent his foot-soldiers across in transports under the command of
Fannius and Lentulus.
While they were doing so Cassius suddenly made his appearance in the midst of
the city with a chosen band of soldiers, without any show of violence or use
of ladders. Most people conjectured, as seemed the fact, that those of the
citizens who were favorable to him had opened the small gates, being moved
by pity for the town and the apprehension of famine. Thus was Rhodes
captured; and Cassius took his seat on the tribunal and planted a spear by
the side of it to indicate that he had taken the city by force. Laying
strict commands upon his soldiers to remain quiet, and threatening with
death any who should resort to violence or plunder, he summoned by name
about fifty citizens, and punished with death those who were led before him.
The others, who were not found, numbering about twenty-five, he ordered to
be banished. All the money that was found, either gold or silver, in the
temples and the public treasury, he seized, and he ordered private citizens
who had any to bring it to him on a day named, proclaiming death to those
who should conceal it, together with a reward of one-tenth to informers and
freedom in addition in the case of slaves. At first many concealed what they
had, hoping that in the end the threat would not be carried out, but when
they saw the rewards paid and those who had been informed against punished,
they became alarmed, and having procured the appointment of another day,
some of them dug their money out of the ground, others drew it out of wells,
and others brought it from tombs, in much larger amounts than the former
collections.except the chariot of the
Sun.
Plutarch says that he did not treat them with moderation,
Such were the calamities that befell the Rhodians. Lucius Varus was left in charge of them with a garrison. Cassius, although delighted with the quickness of the capture and the quantity of money taken, nevertheless ordered all the other peoples of Asia to pay ten years’ tribute, and this they did within a short space of time. News now reached him that Cleopatra was about to sail with a large fleet and very extensive apparatus to Octavius and Antony. She had espoused their cause previously on account of her relations with the first Caesar, and now she espoused it all the more by reason of her fear of Cassius. The latter sent Murcus, with a legion of the best soldiers and a certain number of archers, with sixty decked ships, to the Peloponnesus, to lie in wait in the neighborhood of Taenarum and to collect what booty they could from that country.
We will now relate the transactions of Brutus in Lycia, first glancing at
what has been mentioned above in order to refresh the memory.
When Cassius came, and it was decided to begin by reducing the Lycians and
Rhodians, Brutus turned his attention first to the inhabitants of Xanthus in
Lycia. The latter destroyed their suburbs in order that Brutus might
The Xanthians were now subjected to close siege. Brutus attacked them now with battering-rams against the walls, now by assaults upon the gates with foot-soldiers, whom he kept changing continually. The defenders, although fatigued by being always pitted against fresh soldiers, and all wounded, nevertheless held out as long as their parapets remained. When these were battered down and the towers broken through, Brutus, foreseeing what would happen, ordered those who were attacking the gates to withdraw. The Xanthians, thinking that the enemy’s works were deserted and unguarded, darted out by night to set fire to the machines. Suddenly the Romans attacked them as ordered, and they again fled to the gates, the guards of which closed them before they entered, fearing lest the enemy should rush in with them — in consequence of which there was around the gates a great slaughter of the Xanthians who were shut out.
Soon afterwards the remainder made a fresh sally about midday, and as the besiegers withdrew again, they burned all the machines. As the gates were left open for them on account of the former calamity, about 2000 Romans broke in with them. While others were pushing in at the entrance the portcullis suddenly fell upon them, either by the design of the Xanthians or the accidental breaking of the ropes, so that some of the Romans who were forcing their way in were crushed and the others found their retreat cut off, as they could not raise the portcullis without the hoisting apparatus. Pelted by missiles hurled upon them by the Xanthians from the roofs in the narrow streets, they forced their way with difficulty till they came to the forum, which was near by, and there they overcame the forces which were at close quarters with them, but, being under a heavy volley of arrows and having themselves neither bows nor javelins, they took refuge in the temple of Sarpedon to avoid being surrounded. The Romans who were outside the walls were excited and anxious for those inside, and tried every means [to effect an entrance], Brutus meantime darting hither and thither, but they were not able to break the portcullis, which was protected with iron, nor could they procure ladders or towers since their own had been burned. Nevertheless some of them made extemporized ladders, and others pushed trunks of trees against the walls to serve in place of ladders. Still others fastened iron hooks to ropes and hurled them up to the walls, and whenever one of them caught fast they climbed up.
The Œnandians, who were neighbors of the Xanthians, and who had formed an alliance with Brutus by reason of their enmity to the latter, clambered up by way of a precipice. When the Romans saw them they toiled up after them. Many fell off, but some scaled the wall and opened a small gate, defended with a very dense palisade, and admitted the most daring of the assailants, who swung themselves over the palings. Being now more numerous they began to chop down the portcullis, which was not protected with iron on the inside, while others outside chopped in conjunction with them, and coöperated to the same end. While the Xanthians, with loud cries, were rushing upon the Romans who were at the temple of Sarpedon, the Romans within and without who were demolishing the portcullis, fearful for their comrades, struggled with frantic zeal. Finally they broke it down and rushed through in crowds about sunset, with a loud shout intended as a signal to those in the temple.
When the city was taken the Xanthians ran to their houses and killed those
dearest to them, all of whom willingly offered themselves to the slaughter.
Upon hearing cries of lamentation, Brutus thought that plundering was going
on, and he gave orders to the army to stop it; but when he knew what the
facts were he commiserated the freedom-loving spirit of the citizens, and
sent messengers to offer them terms. They hurled missiles at the messengers,
and, after destroying their own families, placed the bodies on funeral
piles, which they had previously erected in their houses, set fire to them,
and slew themselves on the same. Brutus saved such of the temples as he
could, but he captured only the slaves of the Xanthians; and of the citizens
a few free women and hardly 150 men. Thus the Xanthians perished the third
time by their own hands on account of their love of liberty; for when the
city was besieged by Harpagus, the Mede, the general of Cyrus the Great,
they destroyed themselves in like manner rather than be enslaved, and the
city, shut up by Harpagus,the city being uncared for by
Harpagus.
What this may mean it is hard to understand, since Harpagus
was an enemy outside the walls. Mendelssohn accordingly suggests
Brutus went from Xanthus down to Patara, a city which was something like a seaport of the Xanthians. He surrounded it with his army and ordered the inhabitants to obey him in everything, under penalty of meeting the fate of the Xanthians. Certain Xanthians were brought to them who lamented their own misfortunes and advised them to adopt wiser counsels. As the inhabitants of Patara made no sort of answer to the Xanthians, Brutus gave them the remainder of the day to consider the matter, and went away. The next morning he moved his troops forward. The Patarans cried out from the walls that they would obey all his commands, and opened their gates. He came in, but he neither killed nor banished anybody; but he ordered them to deliver to him whatever gold and silver the city possessed, and each citizen to bring in his private holdings under the same penalties and rewards to informers as those proclaimed by Cassius at Rhodes. They obeyed his order. One slave testified that his master had concealed his gold, and showed it to a centurion who was sent to find it. All the parties were brought before the tribunal. The master remained silent, but his mother, who had followed in order to save her son, cried out that she had concealed the gold. The slave, although not interrogated, disputed her, saying that she lied and that his master had concealed it. Brutus approved of the young man’s silence and sympathized with his mother’s grief. He allowed them both to depart unharmed and to take their gold with them, and he crucified the slave for superserviceable zeal in accusing his superiors.
At the same time Lentulus, who had been sent to Andriace, the seaport of the Myreans, broke the chain which closed the harbor and ascended to Myra. As the inhabitants obeyed his commands, he collected money in the same way as at Patara and returned to Brutus. The confederation of Lycia sent ambassadors to Brutus promising to form a military league with him and to contribute what money they could. He imposed taxes on them and he restored the free Xanthians to their city. He ordered the Lycian fleet, together with his own ships, to set sail for Abydus, where he would rendezvous with his land forces and await Cassius, who was coming from Ionia, so that they might cross over to Sestus together. When Murcus, who was at Peloponnesus lying in wait for Cleopatra, learned that her fleet had been damaged by a storm on the Libyan coast, and saw the wreckage borne by the waves as far as Laconia, and knew that she had returned home with difficulty and in ill health, he sailed for Brundusium in order that he might not be idle with so great a fleet. He came to anchor at the island lying opposite the harbor, and prevented the remainder of the enemy’s army and supplies from passing over to Macedonia. Antony fought him with the few war-ships that he had, and with towers mounted on floats, whenever he sent out detachments of his army on transports and was favored by a strong wind from the land, in order that they might not be captured by Murcus. As he fared badly he called for help from Octavius, who was contending on the water with Sextus Pompeius along the coast of Sicily for possession of that island.
With Pompeius the situation was as follows. Being the younger son of Pompey
the Great, he was at first disregarded by Gaius Caesar in Spain as
not likely to accomplish anything of importance on account of his youth and
inexperience. He roamed about the ocean with a few followers, committing
piracy and concealing the fact that he was Pompeius. When larger numbers
joined him for the purpose of pillage, and his force became powerful, he
revealed his name. Presently those who had served with his father and his
brother, and who were leading a vagabond life, drifted to him as their
natural leader, and Arabio, who had been deprived of his ancestral kingdom,
as I have related previously, came to him from Africa.
Then Caesar sent Asinius Pollio as successor to Carinas to prosecute the war against Pompeius. While they were carrying on the same kind of warfare, Caesar was assassinated and the Senate recalled Pompeius. The latter came to Massilia and there watched the course of events at Rome. Having been appointed commander of the sea with the same powers that his father had exercised, he did not yet come back to the city, but, taking what ships he found in the harbors, and joining them with those he had brought from Spain, he put to sea. When the triumvirate was established he sailed to Sicily, and as Bithynicus, the governor, would not yield the island, he besieged him, until Hirtius and Fannius, two men who had been proscribed and had fled from Rome, persuaded Bithynicus to surrender Sicily to Pompeius.
In this way Pompeius possessed himself of Sicily, and thus had ships, and an island lying convenient to Italy, and an army, now of considerable size, composed of those whom he had before, and those who had fled from Rome, both freemen and slaves, or those sent to him by the Italian cities which had been proclaimed as prizes of victory for the soldiers. These cities dreaded a victory of the triumvirs more than anything else, and whatever they could do against them secretly they did. The wealthy citizens fled from a country that they could no longer consider their own and took refuge with Pompeius, who was near by and greatly beloved by all at that time. There were present with him also many seafaring men from Africa and Spain, skilled in naval affairs, so that Pompeius was well provided with officers, ships, troops, and money. When Octavius learned these facts he sent Salvidienus with a fleet to come alongside of Pompeius and destroy him, as though it were an easy task, while he passed through Italy himself with the intention of joining Salvidienus at Rhegium. Pompeius advanced with a large fleet to meet Salvidienus, and a naval engagement took place between them at the entrance of the straits near the promontory of Scyllaeum. The ships of Pompeius, being lighter and manned by better sailors, excelled in swiftness and skill, while those of the Romans, being of great tonnage and size, labored heavily. When the usual rush of waves through the straits came on, and the sea dashed hither and thither under the influence of the current, the ships of Pompeius suffered less than their adversaries, because they were accustomed to the agitation of the waters; while those of Salvidienus, being unable to maintain their position firmly, or to work their oars, or manage their rudders, by reason of their inexperience, were thrown into confusion. Accordingly, about sunset, Salvidienus was the first to give the signal of retreat. Pompeius withdrew also. The ships suffered about equally on both sides. Salvidienus retired to the port of Balarus, facing the straits, where he repaired what was left of his damaged and wasted fleet.
When Octavius arrived he gave a solemn promise to the inhabitants of Rhegium
and Vibo that they should be exempt from the list of prizes of victory, for
he feared them on account of their nearness to the straits. As Antony had
sent him a hasty summons, he set sail to join the latter at Brundusium,
having Sicily and Pompeius on his left hand; and postponing the conquest of
the island for the time being. On the approach of Octavius, Murcus withdrew
a short distance from Brundusium in order that he might not be between
Antony and Octavius, and there he watched for the passage of the transports
that were carrying the army across from Brundusium to Macedonia. The latter
were escorted by triremes, but a strong and favorable wind having sprung up
they darted across fearlessly, needing no escort. Murcus was vexed, but he
lay in wait for the empty ships on their return. Yet these returned, took on
board the remainder of the soldiers, and crossed again with full sails until
the whole army, together with Octavius and Antony, had passed over. Although
Murcus recognized that his plans were frustrated by some fatality, he held
his position nevertheless, in order to hinder as much as possible the
passage of the enemy’s munitions and supplies, or supplementary troops.
Domitius Ahenobarbus
Decidius
Brutus and Cassius, thinking that the enemy had taken that position not so
much to close the passage to them as to transfer themselves from Macedonia
to Thrace for want of provisions, marched toward Aenus and Maronea
from Lysimacheia and Cardia,
which contained in all nineteen legions of infantry. Of these Brutus had
eight and Cassius nine, not full, but among them were two legions that were
nearly full, so that they mustered about 80,000 foot-soldiers. Brutus had
4000 Gallic and Lusitanian horse, 3000 Thracian and Illyrian,
Such was the size of the army reviewed by Brutus and Cassius at the gulf of Melas, and with it they advanced to battle, leaving the remainder of their forces on duty elsewhere. After performing a lustration for the army, they completed the payment of the promised donative still due to the soldiers. They had provided themselves with an abundant supply of money in order to propitiate them with gifts, especially the large number who had served under Gaius Caesar, lest at the sight or the name of the younger Caesar, who was advancing, they should change their minds. For which reason also it was deemed best to address the soldiers publicly. A large platform was built, upon which the generals took their places, accompanied by the senators only. The soldiers, both their own and their allies, stood around it below, filled with joy at the sight of their vast number, the most powerful they had ever beheld. To both the generals this was an immediate source of the greatest hope and courage. This more than anything else confirmed the fidelity of the army to the generals, for common hopes generate good feeling. There was a great deal of noise, as is usual on such occasions. The heralds and trumpeters proclaimed silence, and, when this was obtained, Cassius, who was the elder of the two, advanced a little in front of his companions and spoke as follows:—
A common peril, fellow-soldiers, is the first thing that binds us in a
common fidelity to each other. The second is, that we have given you all
that we have promised, and this is the surest guarantee for what we have
promised you in the future. All our hopes rest in bravery — the bravery of
you, fellow-soldiers, and of us whom you see on this platform, this large
and noble body of senators. We have, as you see, the most abundant munitions
of war, supplies, arms, money, ships, and auxiliaries both from Roman
provinces and the allied kings. Why is it needful, then, to exhort you with
words to zeal and unanimity — you whom a common purpose and common
interests have brought together? As to the slanders that those two men, our
enemies, have brought against us, you understand them perfectly, and it is
for that reason that you were ready to take up arms with us. Yet it seems
fitting to explain our reasons once more. These will prove to you that we
have the most honorable and righteous cause for war.
We raised Caesar to his high place, serving him in war in
conjunction with you and holding commands under him. We continued his
friends so long that no one could imagine that we conspired against him on
account of any private grudge. It was in time of peace that he sinned, not
against us, his friends (for we were honored before others by him), but
against the laws, against the order of the commonwealth. There was no longer
any law supreme, either aristocratic or plebeian, nor any of the
institutions that our fathers established when they expelled the kings and
swore never to tolerate royal government again. We, descendants of the men
who thus swore, sustained that oath and warded off the curse from ourselves.
We could no longer endure that one man, although he was our friend and
benefactor, should take from the people and vest in himself the control of
the public money, the armies, and the elections, and from the Senate the
appointment of governors of the provinces; that his will should take the
place of the laws, his rule should supplant that of the people, and his
supremacy that of the Senate in everything.
Perhaps you did not understand these matters particularly, but saw only his
bravery in war. Yet you may easily learn about them now by observing only
the part that concerns yourselves. You, of the common people, when you go to
the wars, obey your generals as masters in everything. But in time of peace
you resume the mastery over us. The Senate deliberates first, in order that
you may not make a slip, but you decide for yourselves; you give your votes
by tribes, or by centuries; you choose the consuls, the tribunes, the
praetors. In the comitia you pass judgment on the weightiest
questions, and you decide rewards and punishments when we have deserved
rewards or punishments at your hands. This balance of powers, O citizens,
has raised the empire to the summit of fortune and conferred honors upon
those worthy of them, and the men thus honored have returned thanks to you.
By virtue of this power you made Scipio consul when you bore testimony to
his deeds in Africa, and you elected whom you pleased each year as tribunes,
to oppose us in your interest if necessary. But why should I repeat so many
things that you already know?
From the time when Caesar’s domination began you no longer elected
any magistrate, either praetor, or consul, or tribune. Nor did you
bear testimony to anybody’s deeds, nor, if you had done so, could you have
rewarded them. In a word, nobody owed you any thanks either for a magistracy
or a governorship, either for approving his accounts or acquitting him on a
trial. Most lamentable of all, you could not defend your tribunes against
insult, whom you had constituted your own peculiar and perpetual magistracy,
and had made sacred and inviolable. Yet you saw these inviolable men
despoiled with contumely of this inviolable office, and of their sacred
vestments, without trial, at the order of one man, because in your behalf
they saw fit to proceed against certain persons who wished to proclaim him
as king. The senators were deeply grieved at this on your account, for the
office of tribune is yours, not theirs. But they were not able to censure
this man openly or to bring him to trial by reason of the strength of the
armies, which, although heretofore belonging to the republic, he had made
his own. So they adopted the only remaining method to ward off tyranny, and
that was to conspire against the person of the tyrant.
It was necessary that the decision should be that of the best men, but that
the deed should be done by a few. When it was done the Senate voiced the
general approval clearly by proposing rewards to the tyrannicides. Antony
restrained them from doing so on the pretext that it would lead to disorder;
nor was it our intention to confer this benefit upon Rome for the sake of
reward, but solely for the sake of the country. Accordingly the senators
refrained, not wishing to insult Caesar, but only to get rid of the
tyranny. So they voted amnesty for all, and it was more particularly decreed
that there should be no prosecution for the murder. After a little, when
Antony excited the mob against us, the Senate gave us command of the largest
provinces and armies, and ordered all the countries between Syria and the
Adriatic to obey us. In so doing did they punish us as monsters, or did they
rather distinguish us as tyrannicides with the royal purple and with the
rods and axes? For like reason the Senate recalled from exile the younger
Pompeius (who was not concerned in this conspiracy), because he was the only
son of Pompey the Great, who first took up arms to defend the republic, and
because the young man had made some little opposition in a private way to
the tyranny in Spain. It passed a decree also to pay back to him, out of the
public funds, the value of his father’s property, and it appointed him
admiral in order that he also might hold a command because he was on the
side of the republic. What more could you ask of the Senate by way of deed
or of sign to show that everything was done with their approval, unless that
they should declare it to you in so many words? But they will do and say
this very thing, and saying it they will repay you with magnificent gifts,
when they are able to speak and to requite your services.
What their present situation is you know. They have been proscribed without
trial, and their property confiscated. Without being condemned, they have
been put to death in their houses, in the streets, in temples, by soldiers,
by slaves, by personal enemies. They have been dragged out of their
hiding-places and pursued everywhere, although the laws allow anybody to go
into voluntary exile. In the forum, where the head of an enemy was never
carried, but only captured arms and the beaks of ships, the heads of those
who were lately consuls, praetors, tribunes, aediles, and
knights have been exhibited. Rewards have been assigned for these horrors.
This is a breaking out of all the wounds that had been previously healed
over, — sudden seizures of men, and all kinds of infamy perpetrated by
wives and sons, freedmen and slaves. Into so desperate a plight and such
conditions has the city now been plunged. At the head of all these villains
are the triumvirs, who proscribe their own brothers and uncles and tutors
first of all. It is said that the city was once captured by the most savage
barbarians, but the Gauls never cut off any heads, they never insulted the
dead, they never begrudged their enemies a chance to hide or fly. Nor did we
ever treat in this way any city that we had captured in war, nor did we ever
hear of others doing so. Moreover, it is no ordinary city, but the mistress
of the world, that is thus wronged by those who have been chosen to set in
order and regulate the republic. What did Tarquin ever do like this, —
Tarquin, whom our ancestors hurled from the throne for an outrage committed
upon one woman under the influence of the amatory passion, and then, for
that one act, they resolved to be ruled by kings no longer?
While the triumvirs are committing these outrages, O citizens, they call us
infamous wretches. They say they are avenging Caesar when they
proscribe men who were not in Rome when he was killed. Very many of these
are here, as you see, who have been proscribed on account of their wealth,
their family, or their preferences for republican government. For this
reason Pompeius was proscribed with us, although he was far away in Spain
when we did the deed. Because he was the son of a republican father (for
which reason also he was recalled by the Senate and made commander of the
sea), he was proscribed by the triumvirs. What part have those women had in
the conspiracy against Caesar, who have been condemned to pay
tribute? What part have those plebeians had, whose property is worth 100,000
drachmas each, upon whom new taxes and contributions have been imposed,
which they have been ordered to pay under penalty of being informed against
and fined? And even while levying these exactions the triumvirs have not
fully paid the sums promised to their troops, while we, who have done
nothing contrary to justice, have given you all that we promised and have
other funds ready for still larger rewards. So it comes about that the gods
favor us because we do what is just.
Besides the favor of the gods you can see that we have that of mankind by
looking at these, your fellow-citizens, whom you have often beheld as your
generals and your consuls, and who have won your praises as such. You see
that they have had recourse to us as to men doing right and defending the
republic. They espouse our cause, they offer up their prayers, and they
coöperate with us for what still remains to be done. Far more just
are the rewards we have offered to those who rescue them than those which
the triumvirs offer for killing them. The triumvirs know that we, who killed
Caesar because he assumed the monarchy, would not tolerate them in
assuming his power and that we would not assume it ourselves, but that we
would restore to the people in common the government as we received it from
our ancestors. So you see the two sides have not taken up arms for the same
reason, — the enemy aiming at monarchy and despotism, as their proscription
already proves, while we seek nothing but the mere privilege of living as
private citizens under the laws of our country made once more free.
Naturally the men before you espouse our side as the gods had done
previously. In war the greatest hope lies in the justice of one’s cause.
Let it give no one any concern that he has been one of Caesar’s
soldiers. We were not
They all cried out, Let us go forward!
and urged him to lead them on
immediately. Cassius was delighted with their spirit, and again proclaimed
silence and again addressed them, saying: May the gods who preside over
just wars and over good faith reward your zeal, fellow-soldiers. How far
superior we are to the enemy in everything that the human foresight of
generals can provide let me tell you. We are equal to them in the number of
legions, although we have left behind us the large detachments needed in
many places. In cavalry and ships we greatly surpass them, as also in
auxiliaries from kings and nations as far as the Medes and Parthians.
Besides this we have to deal only with an enemy in front, while Pompeius is
cooperating with us in Sicily in their rear, and in the Adriatic Murcus and
Ahenobarbus with a large fleet and abundance of small craft, besides two
legions of soldiers and a body of archers, are cruising hither and thither
harassing them in various ways, while both land and sea in our rear are
cleared of enemies. As regards money, which some call the sinews of
war,
sinews of war.
This phrase is older
than Appian. It occurs in Cicero’s
Provisions, the supply of which is the chief difficulty in large armies,
they can obtain only from Macedonia, a mountainous region, and the narrow
country of Thessaly, and this must be carried to them overland with severe
labor. If they try to obtain any from Africa, or Lucania, or Apulia,
Pompeius, Murcus, and Domitius will cut them off entirely. We have
abundance, and it is brought to us daily by sea without labor from all the
islands and mainlands which lie between Thrace and the river Euphrates, and
without hindrance, since we have no enemy in our rear. So it rests with us
either to hasten the battle, or by delaying it to waste the enemy by hunger.
Such and so great, fellow-soldiers, are our preparations, so far as they
depend on human foresight. May the future event correspond to these
preparations by your efforts and by the help of the gods. As we have paid
you all that we promised for your former exploits and have rewarded your
fidelity with abundant gifts, so for this greater battle we will, under the
favor of the gods, provide you a reward worthy of it. And now, to increase
the zeal with which you already advance to your task, and in remembrance of
this assembly and of these words, we will make an additional gift from this
platform — to each soldier 1500 Italic
drachmas,
Italic drachmas.
What is
meant is the Roman denarius, equal to sixteen American cents.
Having thus spoken and having put his army in good spirits by deed and word
and gifts, he dissolved the assembly. The soldiers remained a long time
heaping praises on Cassius and Brutus and promising to do their duty. The
generals immediately counted out the money to them, and to the bravest
awarded an additional sum on various pretexts. As they received their pay
they were dismissed by detachments on the march to Doriscus, and the
generals themselves followed soon afterward. Two eagles alighted upon the
two silver eagles which surmounted the standards, pecking at them, or, as
others say, protecting them, and there they remained, being fed by the
generals from the public stores until the day before the battle, when they
flew away. After marching two days around the gulf of Melas the army came to
Aenus and thence to Doriscus and other towns on the coast as far as
Mount Serrium.
As Mount Serrium projected into the sea Cassius and Brutus turned to the mainland, but they sent Tillius Cimber with the fleet and one legion of troops and some archers to sail around the promontory, which, although fertile, was formerly deserted because the Thracians were not accustomed to the sea and avoided the coast for fear of pirates. So the Chalcideans and other Greeks took possession of it, being seafaring people, and caused it to flourish with commerce and agriculture, and the Thracians were much gratified by the opportunity for the exchange of products. Finally Philip, the son of Amyntas, drove out the Chalcideans and other Greeks so that no traces of them were to be seen except the ruins of their temples. Tillius sailed along this promontory, again deserted, as he had been ordered to do by Cassius and Brutus, measuring and mapping places suitable for camps, and approaching it with his ships now and then in order that the forces of Norbanus might abandon the pass, under the belief that it was useless to hold it longer. And it turned out as he had anticipated, for on the appearance of the ships Norbanus became alarmed for the Sapaean pass and called on Decidius to hasten from that of the Corpileans to his assistance, which he did. As soon as the latter pass was abandoned Brutus and Cassius marched through it.
When the stratagem became manifest Norbanus and Decidius occupied the gorge of the Sapaeans strongly. Again Brutus and Cassius could find no passage. They fell into discouragement lest they should now have to begin the roundabout journey which they had disdained, and to turn upon their own tracks, although pressed by time and the lateness of the season. While they were in this mood Rhascupolis said that there was a circuitous route (along the very side of the Sapaean mountain) of three days’ march, which had been impassable to men up to this time on account of rocks, scarcity of water, and dense forests. If they would carry their water and make a narrow but sufficient pathway, they would be so enveloped in shade that they would not be perceived even by birds. On the fourth day they would come to the river Harpessus, which falls into the Hebrus, and in one day more they would be at Philippi, flanking the enemy so as to cut him off completely and leave him no chance to retreat. They adopted this plan since there was nothing else to do, and especially because it held out the hope of surrounding so large a force of the enemy.
They sent a detachment in advance under command of Lucius Bibulus, in company with Rhascupolis, to cut a path. They found it a very laborious task, but they accomplished it nevertheless with enthusiastic zeal, and all the more when some who had gone ahead came back and said that they had had a distant view of the river. On the fourth day, fatigued with labor and thirst, the water which they carried being nearly exhausted, they recollected that it had been said that they should be in a waterless region only three days. So they fell into a panic, fearing that they were the victims of a stratagem. They did not disbelieve those who had been sent in advance and who said that they had seen the river, but they thought that they themselves had been led in a different direction. They lost heart and cried aloud, and when they saw Rhascupolis riding by and exhorting them to have courage, they reviled him and threw stones at him. While Bibulus was beseeching them with words of good cheer to persevere to the end, towards evening the river was seen by those in front, who, as was natural, raised a cry of joy, which was taken up by those behind in due order until it reached the rear. When Brutus and Cassius learned this they hurried forward at once, leading on the remainder of their army through the pathway that had been cleared. Nevertheless, they did not conceal their doings from the enemy altogether, nor surround them, for Rhascus, the brother of Rhascupolis, having his suspicions aroused by the shouting, made a reconnoissance; and when he saw what was being done he was astonished at so large an army traversing a pathway where no water could be obtained, and where he thought not even a wild beast could penetrate by reason of the dense foliage, and he forthwith communicated the news to the army of Norbanus. The latter retreated by night from the gorge of the Sapaeans toward Amphipolis. Each of the Thracian brothers received an ovation in his own army, the one because he had led an army by an unknown path, the other because he had discovered the movement.
Thus Brutus and Cassius by an astounding act of audacity advanced to
Philippi, where Tillius also disembarked, and the whole army was there
assembled. Philippi is a city that was formerly called Datus, and before
that Crenides, because there are many springsa small
spring.
broken
yoke.
This river is not mentioned by any other author.
There is another hill not far from Philippi which is called the Hill of
Dionysus, in which are gold mines called the Asyla. Ten stades farther are
two other hills, at a distance of eighteen stades from Philippi itself and
eight stades from each other. On these hills Cassius and Brutus were
encamped, the former on the southern and the latter on the northern of the
two. They did not advance against the retreating army of Norbanus because
they learned that Antony was approaching, Octavius having been left behind
at Epidamnus on account of sickness. The plain was admirably situated for
fighting and the precipitous hill-tops for camping, since on one side of
them were marshes and ponds stretching as far as the river Strymon, and on
the other gorges destitute of roads and impassable. Between these hills,
eight stades apart, lay the main pass from Europe to Asia as between gates.
Across this space they built a fortification from camp to camp, leaving a
gate in the middle, so that the two camps became virtually one. Alongside
this fortification flowed a river, which is called by some the Ganga and by
others the Gangites,
Antony moved his army rapidly, wishing to anticipate the enemy in occupying
Amphipolis as an advantageous position for the battle. When he found it
already fortified by Norbanus he was delighted. Leaving his apparatus there
and one legion, under the command of Pinarius, he advanced with the greatest
boldness and encamped in the plain at a distance of only eight stades from
the enemy, and straightway the superiority of the enemy’s situation and the
inferiority of his own became evident. The former were on elevated ground,
the latter on the plain; the former procured fuel from the mountains, the
latter from the marshes; the former obtained water from a river, the latter
from wells freshly dug; the former drew their supplies from Thasos,
requiring carriage of only a few stades, while the latter was 350
stades
In this way both sides had fortified themselves, in the meantime making trial of each other by cavalry skirmishes only. When they had done all that they intended and Octavius had arrived (for, although he was not yet strong enough for a battle, he could be carried along the ranks reclining in a litter), he and Antony prepared for battle forthwith. Brutus and Cassius also drew out their forces on their higher ground, but did not come down. They decided not to give battle, hoping to wear out the enemy by want of supplies. There were nineteen legions of infantry on each side, but those of Brutus and Cassius lacked something of being full, while those of Octavius and Antony were complete. Of cavalry the latter had 13,000 and the former 20,000, including Thracians on both sides. Thus in the multitude of men, in the spirit and bravery of the commanders, and in arms and munitions, was beheld a most magnificent display on both sides; yet they did nothing for several days. Brutus and Cassius did not wish to engage, but rather to continue wasting the enemy by lack of provisions, since they themselves had abundance from Asia, all transported by the sea from close at hand, while the enemy had nothing in abundance and nothing from their own territory. They could obtain nothing through merchants from Egypt, since that country was exhausted by famine, nor from Spain or Africa by reason of Pompeius, nor from Italy by reason of Murcus and Domitius. Macedonia and Thessaly, which were the only countries then supplying them, would not suffice much longer.
Mindful chiefly of these facts Brutus and Cassius protracted the war. Antony, fearful of the same, resolved to force them to an engagement. He formed a plan of effecting a passage through the marsh secretly, if possible, in order to get in the enemy’s rear without their knowledge, and cut off their avenue of supply from Thasos. So he arrayed his forces for battle with all the standards set each day, so that it might seem that his entire army was drawn up, while a part of his force was really working night and day cutting a narrow passage in the marsh, cutting down reeds, throwing up a causeway and flanking it with stone so that the earth should not fall away, and bridging the deeper parts with piles, all in the profoundest silence. The reeds, which were still growing around his passage-way, prevented the enemy from seeing his work. After working ten days in this manner he sent a column of troops by night suddenly, who occupied all the strong positions inside and built several redoubts at the same time. Cassius was amazed at the ingenuity as well as the secrecy of this work, and he formed the counter design of cutting Antony off from his redoubts. He carried a transverse wall across the whole marsh from his camp to the sea, cutting and bridging in the same manner as Antony had done, and laying a solid foundation for his rampart, thus intercepting the passage sage made by Antony, so that those inside could not escape to him, nor he render assistance to them.
When Antony saw this about noon, instantly, with rage and fury, he turned his
own army, which was facing in another direction, and led it against the
fortification of Cassius which lay between his camp and the marsh. He
carried tools and ladders intending to take it by storm and force his way
into Cassius’ camp. While he was making this audacious charge, obliquely and
up hill, across the space that separated the two armies, the soldiers of
Brutus were provoked at the insolence of the enemy in dashing boldly athwart
their front while they stood there armed. So they charged of their own
volition, without any order from their officers, took them in flank, and
killed as many as they could reach. The battle once begun they charged upon
the army of Octavius, also, which was drawn up opposite, put it to flight,
pursued it to the camp which Antony and Octavius had in common, and captured
it. Octavius himself was not there, having been warned in a dream to beware
of that day, as he has himself written in his Memoirs.
When Antony saw that battle was joined he was delighted because he had forced it, for he had been in trouble about his supplies. He judged it inadvisable to turn again toward the plain, lest in making the evolution his ranks should be thrown into disorder. So he continued his charge, as he had begun it, on the run, and advanced under a shower of missiles, and forced his way till he struck a body of Cassius’ troops, which had not moved from its assigned position and which was amazed at this unexpected audacity. He courageously broke this advance guard and dashed against the fortification that ran between the marsh and the camp, demolished the palisade, filled up the ditch, undermined the works, and killed the men at the gates, disregarding the missiles hurled from the wall, until he had forced an entrance through the gates, and others had made breaches in the fortification, and still others had climbed up on the debris. All this was done so swiftly that those who had just now captured the fortification met Cassius’ men, who had been at work in the marsh, coming to the assistance of their friends, and, with a powerful charge, put them to flight, drove them into the marsh, and then at once wheeled against the camp of Cassius itself. These were only the men who had scaled the fortification with Antony, the remainder being engaged in conflict with the enemy on the other side of the wall.
As the camp was in a strong position it was guarded by only a few men, for
which reason Antony easily overcame them. Cassius’ soldiers outside the camp
were already worsted, and when they saw that the camp was taken they
scattered in disorderly flight. The victory was complete and alike on either
side, Brutus defeating the enemy’s left wing and taking their camp, while
Antony overcame Cassius and ravaged his camp with irresistible courage.
There was great slaughter on both sides, but by reason of the extent of the
plain and the clouds of dust they were ignorant of each other’s fate. When
they learned the facts they recalled their scattered forces. Those who
returned resembled porters rather than soldiers, and did not at once
perceive each other nor see anything clearly. Otherwise either party would
have flung down their burdens and fiercely attacked the others carrying off
plunder in this disorderly fashion. According to conjecture the number of
killed on the side of Cassius, including slave shield-bearers, was about
8000 and on the side of Octavius double that number.The losses of Brutus and Cassius were 8000,
including the military servants, whom Brutus called Brigas. Messala says
that he thinks those of the enemy were more than twice as great.
evidently a a very wild guess, like most of our statistics of the
casualties of battles in ancient times. (
When Cassius was driven out of his fortifications and no longer had any camp
to go to, he ascended the hill to Philippi and took a survey of the
situation. He could not see accurately on account of the dust, nor could he
see everything, but upon discovering that his own camp was captured he
ordered Pindarus, his shield-bearer, to draw his sword and kill him. While
Pindarus delayed a messenger ran up and said that Brutus had been victorious
on the other wing and was ravaging the enemy’s camp. Cassius merely
answered, Tell him that I pray his victory may be complete.
Then, turning
to Pindarus, he said, What are you waiting for? Why do you not deliver me
from my shame?
Then, as he presented his throat, Pindarus slew him. This is
one account of the death of Cassius. Others say that as some horsemen were
approaching, bringing the good news from Brutus, he took them for enemies
and sent Titinius to find out exactly; that the horsemen pressed around
Titinius joyfully as a friend of Cassius, and at the same time uttered loud
hurrahs; that Cassius, thinking that Titinius had fallen into the hands of
enemies, said, Have I waited to see my friend torn from me?
and that then
he withdrew to a tent with Pindarus, and Pindarus was never seen afterward.
For this reason some persons think that he killed Cassius without orders.
Cassius ended his life on his birthday, on which also the battle was fought,
and Titinius killed himself because he had been too slow.
Brutus wept over the dead body of Cassius and called him the last of the
Romans, meaning that his equal in virtue would never exist again. He
reproached him for haste and precipitancy, but at the same time he esteemed
him happy because he was freed from cares and troubles, which,
he said,
are leading Brutus, ah, whither?
He delivered the corpse to friends to be
buried secretly lest the army should be moved to tears at the sight; and
himself passed the whole night, without food and without care for his own
person, restoring order in Cassius’ army. In the morning the enemy drew up
their army in order of battle, so that they might not seem to have been
beaten. Brutus, perceiving their design, exclaimed, Let us arm also and
make believe that we have suffered no defeat.
So he put his forces in line,
and the enemy withdrew. Brutus said to his friends, jeeringly, They
challenged us when they thought we were tired, but they dared not put us to
the test.
On the same day that witnessed the battle of Philippi another great calamity
took place in the Adriatic. Domitius Calvinus was bringing two legions of
infantry on transport ships to Octavius, one of which was known as the
Martian legion, a name which had been given to it as a distinction for
bravery. He led also a praetorian cohort of about 2000 men, four
squadrons of horse, and a considerable
Some of the soldiers, and especially the Martians, who excelled in bravery, were exasperated that they should lose their lives uselessly, and so killed themselves rather than be burned to death; others leaped on board the triremes of the enemy, giving and receiving blows. Vessels half burned floated a long time, containing men perishing by fire, by hunger, and by thirst. Others, clinging to masts or planks, were thrown upon barren rocks or promontories, and of these some were saved unexpectedly. Some of them were nourished for five days by licking pitch, or chewing sails or ropes, until the waves bore them to the land. The greater part, vanquished by their misfortunes, surrendered to the enemy. Seventeen triremes surrendered, and the men in them took the oath to Murcus. Their general, Calvinus, who was believed to have perished, returned to Brundusium on his ship five days later. Such was the catastrophe that befell in the Adriatic on the same day that the battle of Philippi was fought, whether it be more fitly called a shipwreck or a naval engagement. The coincidence of the two battles caused amazement when it became known later.
Brutus assembled his army and addressed it as follows: In yesterday’s
engagement, fellow-soldiers, you were in every respect superior to the
enemy. You began the battle eagerly, although without orders, and you
utterly destroyed their far-famed fourth legion, on which their wing placed
its reliance, and all those supporting it as far as their camp, and you took
and plundered their camp first, so that our victory far outweighs the
disaster on our left wing. When it was in your power to finish the whole
work, you chose rather to plunder than to kill the vanquished. Most of you
passed by the enemy and made a rush for his property. We are the superior
again in this, that of our two camps they captured only one, while we took
all of theirs, so that here our gain is twice as great as our loss. So great
are our advantages in the battle. How far we excel them in other respects
you may learn from our prisoners — concerning the scarcity and dearness of
provisions among them, the difficulty of procuring further supplies, and how
near they are to absolute want. They can obtain nothing from Sicily,
Sardinia, Africa, or Spain, because Pompeius, Murcus, and Ahenobarbus with
260 ships close the sea against them. They have already exhausted Macedonia.
They are now dependent on Thessaly alone. How much longer will it suffice?
When, therefore, you see them eager to fight, bear in mind that they are so
pressed by hunger that they prefer death by battle. We will make it part of
our plan that hunger shall engage them before we do, so that when it is
necessary to fight we shall find them weakened and exhausted. Let us not be
carried away by our ardor before the proper time. Let no one think that
delay implies want of generalship more than haste,
After speaking thus he distributed the donative to the legions in their
order. Some writers say that he promised to give them also the cities of
Lacedaemon and Thessalonica to plunder.
Octavius and Antony, seeing that Brutus was not willing to fight, assembled
their men, and Antony addressed them thus: Soldiers, I am sure that the
enemy claim in their speeches a share of yesterday’s victory because they
drove some of us and plundered our camp, but they will show by their action
that it was wholly yours. I promise you that neither to-morrow nor on any
subsequent day will they be willing to fight. It is the clearest proof of
their defeat yesterday and of their lack of courage that, like those who
have been vanquished in public games, they keep out of the arena. Surely
they did not collect so numerous an army in order to pass their time in
fortifications in the desert parts of Thrace. They built their
fortifications when you were still approaching because they were afraid. Now
that you have come they adhere to them because of yesterday’s defeat, on
which account also the older and more experienced of their generals in utter
despair committed suicide, and this act is itself the greatest proof of
their disaster. Since, therefore, they do not accept our challenge and come
down from the mountain, but trust to their rocky fastnesses instead of their
arms, be valliant, O my soldiers of Rome, and force them to it again as you
forced them yesterday. Let us consider it base to yield to those who are
afraid of us, to keep our hands off such sluggards, or, soldiers as we are,
to be unequal to the capture of their fortifications. We did not come hither
to pass our lives in this plain, and if we delay we shall be in want of
everything. If we are well advised we shall prosecute the war sharply, in
order that peace may be of the longest duration possible.
We, who have not incurred your censure for the onset and the plan of
yesterday’s battle, will devise fresh opportunities and means for this end.
You, on the other hand, when you are asked, repay your generals with your
valor. Nor will you be troubled, after a little, by yesterday’s plundering
of our camp, for our wealth consists not in the property we hold, but in
conquering with might, which will restore to us as victors not only what we
lost yesterday, which is still safe in the enemy’s possession, but the
enemy’s wealth in addition. And if we are in haste
if we
Having spoken thus, he led out his men again on the following day. As the enemy would not come down then, Antony was disgusted, but he continued to lead out his men daily. Brutus had a part of his army in line lest he should be compelled to fight; and with another part he guarded the road by which his supplies were conveyed. There was a hill very near the camp of Cassius, which it was difficult for an enemy to occupy because, by reason of its nearness, it was exposed to arrows from the camp. Nevertheless, Cassius had placed a guard on it, lest it should be forced unexpectedly. As it had been abandoned by Brutus, the army of Octavius occupied it by night with four legions and protected themselves with wickerwork and hides against the enemy’s bowmen. When this position was secured they transferred ten other legions a distance of more than five stades toward the sea. Four stades farther they placed two legions, in order to extend themselves in this manner quite to the sea, with a view of breaking through the enemy’s line either along the sea itself, or through the marsh, or in some other way, and to cut off their supplies. Brutus counteracted this movement by building fortified posts opposite their camps and in other ways.
The task of Octavius and Antony became pressing, hunger was already felt, and
fear fell upon them more and more each day,
Brutus adhered to his original intention, and all the more because he knew of
the famine and of his own success in the Adriatic, and of the enemy’s
desperation for want of supplies. He preferred to endure a siege, or
anything else, rather than come to an engagement with men who were
famishing, and whose hopes rested solely on fighting because they despaired
of every other resource. His soldiers, however, without reflection,
entertained a different opinion. They took it hard that they should be shut
up, idle and cowardly, like women, within their fortifications. Their
officers, although they approved of Brutus’ design, were vexed, thinking
that in the present temper of the army they might overpower the enemy more
quickly. Brutus himself was the cause of these murmurs, being of a gentle
and kindly disposition toward all — not like Cassius, who was austere and
imperious in every way, for which reason the army obeyed his orders
promptly, not interfering with his authority, not inquiring the reasons for
his orders, and not criticising them when they had learned them. But in the
case of Brutus they expected nothing else than to share the command with him
on account of his mildness of temper. Finally, the soldiers began openly to
collect together in companies and groups and to ask each other, Why does
our general put a stigma upon us? How have we offended lately — we who
conquered the enemy and put him to flight; we who slaughtered those opposed
to us and took their camp?
Brutus took no notice of these murmurs, nor did
he call an assembly, lest he should be forced from his position, contrary to
his dignity, by the unreasoning multitude, and especially by the
mercenaries, who, like fickle slaves seeking new masters, always rest their
hopes of safety on desertion to the enemy.
His officers kept teasing and urging him to make use of the eagerness of the
army now, which would speedily bring glorious results. If the battle should
turn out adversely, they could fall back to their walls and put the same
fortifications between themselves and the enemy. Brutus was especially vexed
with these, for they were his officers, and he grieved that they, who were
exposed to the same peril as himself, should capriciously side with the
soldiers in preferring a quick and doubtful chance to a victory without
danger; but, to the ruin of himself and them, he yielded, chiding them with
these words, I seem to be carrying on war like Pompey the Great, not so
much commanding as commanded.
I think that Brutus restricted himself to
these words in order to conceal his greatest fear, lest those of his
soldiers who had formerly served under Caesar should become
disaffected and desert to the enemy. This both himself and Cassius had
apprehended from the beginning, and they had been careful not to give any
excuse for such disaffection toward themselves.
So Brutus led out his army unwillingly and formed them in line of battle
before his walls, ordering them not to advance very far from the hill so
that they might have a safe retreat if necessary and a good position for
hurling darts at the enemy. In each army the men exchanged exhortations with
each other. There was great eagerness for battle, and unbounded confidence.
On the one side was the fear of famine, on the other a well-deserved shame
that they had constrained their general to fight when he still favored
delay, and fear lest they should come short of their promises and prove
weaker than their boastings, and expose themselves to the charge of rashness
instead of winning praise for good counsel; because also Brutus, riding
through the ranks on horseback, showed himself before them with a severe
countenance and reminded them in a few words of what the opportunity
offered. You want to fight,
he said; you force me to battle when I am
able to conquer otherwise.
With these words he passed on, the
soldiers telling him to trust them and echoing his words with shouts of
confidence. You
have forced me, who thought differently, and had victory in my grasp, to
come to battle.
Mendelssohn thinks that there is a lacuna in the
existing text after the word
Octavius and Antony rode through their own ranks shaking hands with those
nearest them, and urging them in the most serious manner to do their duty,
and not concealing the danger of famine, because they believed that that
would be the greatest incitement to bravery. Soldiers,
they said, we have
found the enemy. We have before us those whom we sought to catch outside of
their fortifications. Let none of you shame his own challenge or prove
unequal to his own threat. Let no one prefer hunger, that unmanageable and
distressing evil, to the walls and bodies of the enemy which they will yield
to bravery, to the sword, to despair. Our situation at this moment is so
pressing that nothing can be postponed till to-morrow, but this very day
must decide for us either a complete victory or an honorable death. If we
conquer we gain in one day and by one blow provisions, money, ships, and
camps, and the prizes of victory offered by ourselves. Such will be the
result if, from our first onset upon them, we are mindful of the necessity
urging us on, and if, after breaking their ranks, we immediately cut them
off from their gates and drive them upon the rocks or into the plain, so
that the war may not spring up again or these enemies get away for another
period of idleness — the only warriors who are so weak as to rest their
hopes, not on fighting, but on declining to fight.
In this way Octavius and Antony roused the spirit of those with whom they came in contact. The emulation of the troops was excited to show themselves worthy of their commanders and also to escape the danger of famine, which had been greatly augmented by the naval disaster in the Adriatic. They preferred, if necessary, to suffer in battle, with the hope of success, rather than be wasted by an irresistible foe. Inspired by these thoughts, which each man exchanged with his nearest neighbor, the spirit of the two armies was wonderfully raised and both were filled with undaunted courage. They did not now remember that they were fellow-citizens of their enemies, but hurled threats at each other as though they had been enemies by birth and descent, so much did the anger of the moment extinguish reason and nature in them. Both sides divined equally that this day and this battle would decide the fate of Rome completely; and it did decide it.
The day was consumed in preparations till the ninth hour,
The enemy having been routed, the generals divided the remainder of the work
between themselves, Octavius to capture those who should break out of the
camp and to watch the main camp, while Antony was everywhere, and everywhere
attacking, falling upon the fugitives and those who still held together, and
upon their other camping-places, crushing all with vehement impetuosity.
Fearing lest the leaders should escape him and collect another army, he
despatched cavalry upon the roads and outlets of the field of battle to
capture those who were trying to escape. These divided their work; some of
them hurried up the mountain with Rhascus, the Thracian, who was sent with
them on account of his knowledge of the roads. They surrounded the fortified
positions and escarpments, hunted down the fugitives, and kept watch upon
those inside. Others pursued Brutus himself. Lucilius seeing them rushing on
furiously, surrendered himself, pretending to be Brutus, and asked them to
take him to Antony instead of Octavius; for which reason chiefly he was
believed to be Brutus trying to avoid his implacable enemy. When Antony
heard that they were bringing him, he went to meet him, with a pause to
reflect on the fortune, the dignity, and the virtue of the man, and thinking
how he should receive Brutus. As he was approaching, Lucilius presented
himself, and said with perfect boldness, You have not captured Brutus, nor
will virtue ever be taken prisoner by vice. I deceived these men and so here
I am.
Antony, observing that the horse-men were ashamed of their mistake,
consoled them, saying, The game you have caught for me is not worse, but
better than you think — as much better as a friend is than an enemy.
Then
he committed Lucilius to the care of one of his friends, and later took him
into his own service and employed him in a confidential capacity.
Brutus fled to the mountains with a considerable force, intending to return
to his camp by night, or to move down to the sea. But since all the roads
were encompassed by guards he passed the night under arms with all his
party, and it is said that, looking up to the stars, he exclaimed: —
Forget not, Zeus, the author of these ills.
referring to Antony. It is said that Antony himself repeated this saying at a later period in the midst of his own dangers, regretting that, when he might have associated himself with Cassius and Brutus, he had become the tool of Octavius. At the present time, however, Antony passed the night under arms with his outposts over against Brutus, fortifying himself with a breastwork of dead bodies and spoils collected together. Octavius toiled till midnight and then retired on account of his illness, leaving Norbanus to watch the enemy’s camp.
On the following day Brutus, seeing the enemy still lying in wait for him,
and having less than four full legions, which had ascended the mountain with
him, thought it best not to address himself to his troops, but to their
officers, who were ashamed and repentant of their fault. To them he sent to
put them to the test and to learn whether they were willing to break through
the enemy’s lines and regain their own camp, which was still held by their
troops who had been left there. These officers, though they had rushed to
battle unadvisedly, had been of good courage for the most part, but now,
misled by a god, gave to their general the undeserved answer that he should
look out for himself, that they had tempted fortune many times, and that
they would not throw away the last remaining hope of accommodation. Then
Brutus said to his friends, I am no longer useful to my country if such is
the temper of these men,
and calling Strato, the Epirote, who was one of
his friends, gave him the order to stab him. While Strato was still willing
to deliberate, Brutus called one of his servants. Then Strato said, Your
friend shall not come short of your servants in executing your last
commands, if the decision is actually reached.
With these words he thrust
his sword into the side of Brutus, who did not shrink or turn away.Delusive
virtue, thou art but a name. I cultivated thee as a reality, but thou
art the slave of fortune.
Florus (iv. 7) puts in the mouth of Brutus
nearly the same words:
Brutus’ dying speech given by Plutarch is much
longer, as well as more appropriate and dignified, and better entitled
to credence.
So died Cassius and Brutus, two most noble and illustrious Romans, and of incomparable virtue, but for one crime. Although they belonged to the party of Pompey the Great, and had been the enemies, in peace and in war, of Gaius Caesar, he made them his friends, and from being friends he was treating them as sons. The Senate at all times had a peculiar attachment to them, and commiseration for them when they fell into misfortune. On account of those two it granted amnesty to all the assassins, and when they took flight it bestowed governorships on them in order that they should not be exiles; not that it was disregardful of Gaius Caesar or rejoiced at what had happened to him, for it admired his bravery and good fortune, gave him a public funeral at his death, ratified his acts, and had for a long time awarded the magistracies and governorships to his nominees, considering that nothing better could be devised than what he proposed. But its zeal for these two men and its solicitude for them brought it under suspicion of complicity in the assassination, — so much were those two held in honor by all. By the most illustrious of the exiles they were preferred to [Sextus] Pompeius, although he was nearer and not implacable to the triumvirs, while they were farther away and irreconcilable.
When it became necessary for them to take up arms, two whole years had not
elapsed ere they had brought together upward of twenty legions of infantry
and something like 20,000 cavalry, and 200 ships of war, with corresponding
apparatus and a vast amount of money, some of it from willing and some from
unwilling contributors. They carried on wars with many peoples and with
cities and with men of the adverse faction successfully. They brought under
their sway all the nations from Macedonia to the Euphrates. Those whom they
had fought against they had brought into alliance with them and had found
them most faithful. They had had the services of the independent kings and
princes, and in some small measure even of the Parthians, who were enemies
of the Romans; but they did not wait for them to come and take part in the
decisive battle, lest this barbarous and hostile race should become
accustomed to encounters with the Romans. Most extraordinary of all was the
fact that the greater part of their army had been the soldiers of Gaius
Caesar and wonderfully attached to him, yet they were won over by
the very murderers of Caesar and followed them more faithfully
against Caesar’s son than they had followed Antony, who was
Caesar’s companion in arms and colleague; for not one of them
deserted Brutus and Cassius even when they were vanquished, while some of
them had abandoned Antony at Brundusium before the war began. The reason for
their service, both under Pompey aforetime and now under Brutus and Cassius,
was not their own interest, but the cause of democracy; a specious name
indeed, but generally hurtful.not
always useful,
instead of always hurtful.
Plutarch says that
government by the majority seemed to be no longer possible to the
Romans, and that a monarchy was needed; and accordingly Providence, in
order to remove the only man who stood in the way of the one who was
able to govern (meaning Octavius), prevented Brutus from receiving the
news of his victory in the Adriatic, etc. (
Against all these virtues and merits must be set down the crime against
Caesar, which was not an ordinary or a small one, for it was
committed unexpectedly against a friend, ungratefully against a benefactor
who had spared them in war, and nefariously against the head of the state,
in the senate-house, against a pontiff clothed in his sacred vestments,
against a ruler without an equal, who was most useful above all other men to
Rome and its empire. For these reasons Heaven was incensed against them and
often forewarned them of their doom. When Cassius was performing a
lustration for his army his lictor presented his garland wrong side up. A
gilded statue of Victory dedicated to Cassius fell down. Many birds hovered
over his camp, but uttered no sound,But that which especially indicated to
Brutus and Cassius their ruin, so that it was plain to their
adversaries, was the great number of vultures and other carrion-eating
birds that soared above them only, and looked down at them screaming and
squeaking in a fearful and awe-inspiring way.
Florus (iv. 7) mentions
the same phenomenon: Birds accustomed to feed on dead bodies flew
around the camp as though it were already their own.
A cruel fate O’ertakes me, aided by Latona’s
son.
Once when he was about to cross from Asia into Europe with his army, and
while he was awake at night and the light was burning low, he beheld an
apparition of extraordinary form standing near him, and when he boldly asked
who of men or gods it might be, the spectre answered, I am thy evil genius,
Brutus. I shall appear to thee again at Philippi.
Appian: Τίς ποτʼ
ὤν,
εἶπεν, ἀνθρώπων ἢ θεῶν ἢ τί βουλόμενος ἥκεις
ὡς ἡμᾶς;
Ὑποφθέγγεται δὲ αὐτῷ τὸ φάσμα, Ὁ σὸς, ὧ
Βροῦτε, δαίμων κακός· ὄψει δέ με περὶ
Φιλίππους.
καὶ πυθέσθαι
μὲν εὐθαρσῶς, ὅστις ἀνθρώπων ἢ θεῶν εἴη· τὸ δὲ φάσμα
εἰπεῖν, Ὁ σὸς, ὦ Βροῦτε, δαίμων κακός· ὀφθήσομαι δέ
σοι καὶ ἐν Φιλίπποις
Antony found the body of Brutus, wrapped it in his best purple garment,
burned it, and sent the ashes to his mother, Servilia. Brutus’ army, when it
learned of his death, sent envoys to Octavius and Antony and obtained
pardon, and was divided between their armies. It consisted of about 14,000
men. Besides these a large number who were in garrisons surrendered. The
garrisons themselves and the enemy’s camp were given to the soldiers of
Octavius and Antony to be plundered. Of the distinguished men in Brutus’
camp some perished in the battles, others killed themselves as the two
generals had done, others purposely continued fighting till death. Among
these men of note were Lucius Cassius, a nephew of Cassius himself, and
Cato, the son of Cato. The latter charged upon the enemy many times; then,
when his men began to retreat, he threw off his helmet, either that he might
be recognized, or be easily hit, or for both reasons.
Rhascus, the Thracian, brought many troops from the mountains. He asked and
received as his reward the pardon of his brother, Rhascupolis, from which it
was made plain that from the beginning these Thracians had not been at
variance with each other, but that seeing two great and hostile armies
coming into conflict near their territory, they took sides in the contest in
such a way that the victor might save the vanquished. Portia, the wife of
Brutus and sister of the younger Cato, when she learned that both had died
in the manner described, although very strictly watched by domestics, seized
some coals of fire that they were carrying, and swallowed them.
Thus did Octavius and Antony by perilous daring and by two infantry engagements achieve a success, the like of which was never before known; for never before had such numerous and powerful Roman armies come in conflict with each other. These soldiers were not enlisted from the ordinary conscription, but were picked men. They were not new levies, but under long drill and arrayed against each other, not against foreign or barbarous races. Speaking the same language and using the same tactics, being of like discipline and power of endurance, they were for these reasons evenly matched. Nor was there ever such fury and daring in war as here, when citizens contended against citizens, families against families, and fellow-soldiers against each other. The proof of this is that, taking both battles into the account, the number of the slain among the victors appeared to be not less [than among the vanquished].
Thus the army of Antony and Octavius confirmed the prediction of their generals, passing in one day and by one blow from extreme danger of famine and fear of destruction to lavish wealth, absolute security, and glorious victory. That result came about which Antony and Octavius had predicted as they advanced into battle. Their form of government was decided by that day’s work chiefly, and they have not gone back to democracy yet. Nor was there any further need of similar contentions with each other, except the strife between Antony and Octavius not long afterward, which was the last that took place between Romans. The events that transpired after the death of Brutus, under Sextus Pompeius and the friends of Cassius and Brutus, who escaped with the very considerable remains of their extensive war material, were not to be compared to the former in daring or in the devotion of men, cities, and armies to their leaders; nor did any of the nobility, nor the Senate, nor the same glory, attend them as attended Brutus and Cassius.
Just before the arrival of the triumvirs Marcus Cicero left the city,
considering it certain that he had no more chance of being saved from the
vengeance of Antony than Brutus and Cassius had of escaping that of
Octavius, — which was the fact. He fled first to his Tusculan villa and
thence proceeded by cross-roads to that of Formiae in order to take
ship at Caieta. There, after advancing several times seaward, he was driven
back by adverse winds, and again he found himself unable to endure the
tossing of the ship on the gloomy rolling waves, and he began at length to
grow weary both of flight and of life. So he returned to his upper villa,
which was a little more than a mile from the shore, saying,
(I will die in
my fatherland that I have so often saved.
It is well established that his
slaves were ready to fight for him bravely and faithfully, but that he
ordered them to put down the litter and endure with patience whatever an
adverse fate should compel. As he leaned out of the litter and offered his
neck unmoved, his head was cut off. Nor did this satisfy the senseless
cruelty of the soldiers. They cut off his hands, also, for the offence of
having written something against Antony. Thus the head was brought to Antony
and placed by his order between the two hands on the rostra, where, often as
consul, often as a consular, and, that very year against Antony, he had been
heard with admiration of his eloquence, the like of which no other human
voice ever uttered. The people, raising their eyes bedimmed with tears,
could scarcely bear the sight of his dismembered parts. He lived sixty-three
years, so that in the absence of violence his death could not have been
considered premature. His genius served him well both in his works and in
the rewards thereof. He enjoyed the favors of fortune for a long time, yet
in the intervals of his protracted career of prosperity he suffered some
severe blows, exile, the ruin of the party he had espoused, the death of his
daughter, and his end so sad and bitter, none of which calamities did he
bear as became a man except his death, which to one who weighs the matter
impartially must seem the less undeserved, since he suffered nothing more
cruel at the hands of his victorious enemy than he would himself have
inflicted if fortune had put the same power in his hands.The fury of
your friend [Antony] increases from day to day. For a first example,
there is the statue which he has placed in the forum inscribed
In the second Philippic (7) he says that if Rome had
the same kind of a leader now that she had in the time of the conspiracy
of Catiline, Antony would share the fate of those conspirators. When
Cicero wrote the second Philippic he knew that he took his life in his
hand. Addressing, himself to Antony, he said: To the
most worthy Father of his Country,
whereby you are stigmatized not only
as assassins, but even as parricides. I defended the republic
when I was young, I will not abandon it now that I am old. I despised
the sword of Catiline, I will not quail before yours. I will offer my
body freely if my death can bring back liberty to the state. . . . Death
is even desirable to me, Conscript Fathers, after the honors I have
gained and the deeds I have done. I ask for only these two things:
first, that dying, I may leave the Roman people free; the immortal gods
can grant me nothing that I desire more. The other is that the rewards
of each man may be in proportion to what he has deserved of the
republic.
(
The glowing words of Velleius also deserve a place here; and these likewise
have found their echo in all later generations, viz.: You have gained
nothing, Mark Antony (for the indignation bursting from my mind and breast
compels me to exceed the intended character of this work); you have gained
nothing, I say, by paying the price for closing that celestial voice and
cutting off that most noble head, and instigating, by a cruel reward, the
death of a man who had once been so great a consul and the saviour of the
republic. You deprived Marcus Cicero of a life of anxiety and a feeble old
age, of an existence worse under your chieftainship than death under your
triumvirate. But the fame and glory of his deeds and words you have not
taken from him in the least, but rather augumented. He lives and will live
in the memory of all ages. So long as this body of the natural universe,
whether created by chance or by providence, or however constituted, which he
almost alone of the Romans penetrated with his intellect, embraced with his
genius, and illuminated with his eloquence, shall endure, it will bear the
praise of Cicero as coeval with it. All posterity will admire what he wrote
against you and execrate what you did against him, and sooner shall the
human race perish from the earth than his fame decay.
(
Valerius Maximus, under the heading of Ingratitude among the Romans,
says:
Cicero, at the instance of M. Caelius, with no less zeal than
eloquence, defended C. Popilius Laena, a man of Picenum, and,
though he had a doubtful case, returned him in safety to his home. This
Popilius, of his own accord, although he had never afterward been harmed by
Cicero by word or deed, asked Antony to send him to pursue and kill that
illustrious proscript. When he had obtained this detestable commission he
hastened with joy and gladness to Caieta and ordered that man who, not to
mention his very great dignity, had certainly been Laena’s
preserver, and was entitled to veneration for the zealous and distinguished
service rendered in his private capacity, to lay bare his throat. Then, with
absolute coolness, he cut off the head of Roman eloquence and the most
renowned right hand of peace. Loaded with these, as with the honorable
spoils of war, he returned gayly to the city. As he bore the infamous burden
it never occurred to him that he was carrying the very head that once had
pleaded eloquently for his own. Words are powerless to stigmatize this
monster, since no other Cicero exists to deplore in fitting terms the
misfortune that befell that one.
(
The following is Plutarch’s account of Cicero’s death. While these events
were in progress Cicero was at his country place near Tusculum, and his
brother was with him. When they heard of the proscription they decided to go
down to Astura, Cicero’s place on the sea-coast, and sail thence to
Macedonia to join Brutus, for it was already rumored that he had mastered
those parts. They were conveyed, sorrow-stricken, in litters, and often
stopped on the road, bringing their litters near together, and condoled with
each other. Quintus was particularly disturbed as he remembered his needy
condition. So he said that, as he had brought nothing from home, and as
Cicero’s provision was also very scanty, it would be best for the latter to
continue his flight, while Quintus should return home and provide himself
with necessaries. After this was decided upon they embraced each other,
wept, and went different ways. Quintus, not many days later, was betrayed by
his servants to the pursuers, and was killed, together with his son. Cicero
was conveyed to Astura, where he found a ship ready, in which he embarked
and sailed as far as Circaeum with a favorable wind. The pilots
wished to proceed from that place immediately, but Cicero, either fearing
the sea, or not having lost all faith in Octavius, went ashore and travelled
100 stades by land toward Rome. Again he became anxious, changed his mind,
and went back to the sea-shore at Astura. There he passed the night in great
trouble and perplexity. He even contemplated going secretly to the house of
Octavius and killing himself on his hearthstone, in order to bring divine
vengeance upon him, but the fear of torture changed his purpose. Then,
falling a prey to other perplexed and varying counsels, he allowed his
servants to convey him by sea to Caieta, where he had a country place, an
agreeable retreat in the summer season when the north winds blow fresh.
There was a small temple on the sea-shore at this place, out of which crows
flew in large numbers and with loud noise, to Cicero’s ship as it neared the
land, and, alighting on either side of the yard-arm, some of them croaked
and others pecked at the ends of the ropes. This seemed to all to be an ill
omen. Nevertheless, Cicero disembarked and proceeded to his villa, where he
went to bed to take a little rest. The crows alighted at the window, where
they clamored tumultuously, and one of them flew down upon the bed where
Cicero was covered up, and, little by little, drew the covering from his
face with its beak. When the servants saw this they reproached themselves
for remaining idle spectators of their master’s fate, and not rescuing him
in his undeserved distress, while the brute creation was lending him aid.
So, partly by entreaty, partly by force, they put him in the litter and
carried him toward the sea-shore.
In the meantime the murderers were coming, under the command of the
centurion Herennius and the military tribune Popilius, whom Cicero had once
defended when he was prosecuted for killing his own father. Finding the
doors closed, they broke them open, but they did not find Cicero, and those
who were within said that they did not know where he was. It is said that a
young man named Philologus, who had been educated by Cicero in the liberal
arts and sciences, a freedman of his brother Quintus, told the tribune that
they were carrying the litter through the bushy shaded walks toward the sea.
The tribune took a few men and ran around to the exit of these paths.
Herennius kept his course along the path, and when Cicero saw him he ordered
the servants to put down the litter. Then, leaning his chin on his left hand
as was his custom, he looked straight at the murderers. His haggard
appearance and his unshaven face, wasted with anxiety, caused most of them
to hide their own heads while Herennius murdered him. He was killed while
holding his neck out of the litter, being then in the sixty-fourth year of
his age. By Antony’s command his head was cut off and also the hands with
which he wrote the Philippics, for he styled his orations against Antony the
Philippics, and they are so called to this day.
(
Dion Cassius gives a very brief account of Cicero’s death, but adds some
particulars about the indignities offered to his remains, viz.: When the
head of Cicero was brought to the triumvirs (for he was captured and killed
while fleeing), Antony heaped many bitter reproaches on it, and then ordered
that it be put in a more conspicuous place than the others on the rostra, so
that in the place where Cicero had been heard speaking against himself it
might be seen, together with the right hand, as that also had been cut off.
Before it was removed Fulvia took the head in her hands, and, after abusing
it with bitter words and spitting on it, placed it on her knees, opened the
mouth, drew out the tongue, and pierced it with pins that she used in
dressing her hair, all the time heaping disgusting epithets upon it.
(
AFTER the death of Cassius and Brutus, Octavius returned to Italy. Antony proceeded to Asia, where he met Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, and succumbed to her charms at first sight. This passion brought ruin upon them and upon all Egypt besides. For this reason a part of this book will treat of Egypt — a small part, however, not worth mentioning in the title, since it is incidental to the narrative of the civil wars, which constitutes much the larger portion. Other similar civil wars took place after Cassius and Brutus, but there was no one in command of all the forces as they had been. The later wars were sporadic. But, finally, Sextus Pompeius, the younger son of Pompey the Great, the last remaining leader of that faction, was slain, as Brutus and Cassius had been, and Lepidus was deprived of his share of the triumvirate, and the whole government of the Romans was centred in two only, Antony and Octavius. These events came about in the following manner.
Cassius, surnamed Parmesius,Cassius, Quaestor,
dated at the promontory of
Crommyon, Cyprus, June, 710, describing the naval operations of himself
and others in those waters. That this letter was written by Cassius
Parmensis and not by Lucius Cassius, the brother of Gaius, is made
probable by the fact that he was then, as he informs Cicero, cruising in
conjunction with Turulius (mentioned below), and that they joined their
fleets and sailed to the Adriatic about the time that Lucius Cassius was
making his peace with Antony in Asia, as described in Sec. 7. Cassius of
Parma was a poet of distinction. See Horace (
After the battle of Philippi Octavius and Antony offered a magnificent
sacrifice and awarded praise to their army. In order to provide the rewards
of victory Octavius went to Italy to divide the land among the soldiers and
to settle the colonies. He was chosen for this purpose on account of his
illness. Antony went to the nations beyond the Aegean to collect
the money that had been promised to the soldiers. They divided the provinces
among themselves as before and took those of Lepidus besides. It was
decided, at the instance of Octavius, to make Cisalpine Gaul free,
When Antony arrived at Ephesus he offered a splendid sacrifice to the city’s
goddess and pardoned those who, after the disaster to Brutus and Cassius,
had fled to the temple as suppliants, except Petronius, who had been privy
to the murder of Caesar, and Quintus, who had betrayed Dolabella to
Cassius at Laodicea. Having assembled the Greeks and other peoples who
inhabited the Asiatic country around Pergamos, and who were present on a
peace embassy, and others who had been summoned thither, Antony addressed
them as follows: Your King Attalus, O Greeks, left you to us in his will,
and straightway we proved better to you than Attalus had been, for we
released you from the taxes that you had been paying to him, until the
action of popular agitators among us made these taxes necessary. When they
became necessary we did not impose them upon you according to a fixed
valuation so that we could collect an absolutely certain sum, but we
required you to contribute a portion of your yearly harvest in order that we
might share with you the vicissitudes of the seasons. When the publicans,
who made these collections by the authority of the Senate, wronged you by
demanding more than was due, Gaius Caesar remitted to you one-third
of what you had paid to them and put an end to their outrages; for he even
turned over to you the collection of the taxes from the cultivators of the
soil. And this was the kind of man that our honorable citizens called a
tyrant, and you contributed vast sums of money to the murderers of your
benefactor and against us, who were seeking to avenge him.
Now that a just fortune has decided the war, not as you wished, but as was
right, if we were to treat you as allies of our enemies we should be obliged
to punish you. But as we are willing to believe that you were constrained to
this course by necessity, we will release you from the heavier penalty. We
need money and land and cities as rewards for our soldiers. There are
twenty-eight legions of infantry which, with the auxiliaries, amount to
upwards of 170,000 men, besides cavalry and various other arms of the
service. The sum that we need for such a vast number of men you can easily
imagine. Octavius has gone to Italy to provide them with land and cities —
to expropriate Italy, if we must speak plainly. That we may not be under the
necessity of expelling you from your lands, cities, houses, temples, and
tombs, we must count upon getting money from you, not all that you have (we
could not think of that), but a part, a very small part, which, when you
learn it, I think you will cheerfully pay. What you contributed to our
enemies in two years (for you gave them the taxes of ten years in that time)
will be quite sufficient for us; but it must be paid in one year, because we
are pressed by necessity. As you are sensible of our leniency toward you, I
will merely add that the penalty imposed is by no means equal to your
deserts.
Antony spoke thus of providing a donative for twenty-eight legions of infantry, whereas I think that they had forty-three legions when they came to their agreement at Mutina and made these promises, but the war had probably reduced them to this number. The Greeks, while he was still speaking, threw themselves upon the ground, declaring that they had been subjected to force and violence by Brutus and Cassius, and that they were deserving of pity, not of punishment; that they would willingly give to their benefactors, but that they had been stripped by their enemies, to whom they had delivered not only their money, but, in default of money, their plate and their ornaments, and who had coined these things into money in their presence. Finally, they prevailed by their entreaties that the amount should be reduced to nine years’ taxes, payable in two years. It was ordered that the kings, princes, and free cities should make additional contributions according to their means, respectively.
While Antony was making the circuit of the provinces Lucius Cassius, the
brother of Gaius, and some others, who feared for their own safety, when
they heard of the pardon of Ephesus, presented themselves to him as
suppliants. He released them all except those who had been privy to the
murder of Caesar. To these alone he was inexorable. He gave relief
to the cities that had suffered most severely. He released the Lycians from
taxes altogether, and urged the rebuilding of Xanthus. He gave to the
Rhodians Andros, Tenos, Naxos, and Myndus,
Cleopatra came to meet him in Cilicia, and he blamed her for not sharing their labors in avenging Caesar. Instead of apologizing she enumerated to him the things she had done, saying that she had sent the four legions that had been left with her to Dolabella forthwith, and that she had another fleet in readiness, but had been prevented from sending it by adverse winds and by the misfortune of Dolabella, whose defeat came suddenly; that she did not lend assistance to Cassius, who had threatened her twice; that while the war was going on she had set sail for the Adriatic in person with a fleet to assist them, in defiance of Cassius, and disregarding Murcus, who was lying in wait for her; but that a tempest shattered the fleet and prostrated herself with illness, for which reason she was not able to put to sea again till they had already gained their victory. Antony was amazed at her wit as well as her good looks, and became her captive as though he were a young man, although he was forty years of age. It is said that he was always very susceptible in this way, and that he had been enamoured of her long ago when she was still a girl and he was serving as master of horse under Gabinius at Alexandria.
Straightway Antony’s interest in public affairs began to dwindle. Whatever
Cleopatra ordered was done, regardless of laws, human or divine. While her
sister Arsinoe was a suppliant in the temple of Artemis Leucophryne at
Miletus,Megalobyzi,
that they were eunuchs, that
they were held in high honor, and that they were obliged to have virgins
as their colleagues in the priesthood.
It seems that this course on Antony’s part caused the outbreak of the Parthian war not long afterward, as many of the rulers expelled from Syria had taken refuge with the Parthians. Syria, until the reign of Antiochus Pius and his son, Antiochus, had been ruled by the descendants of Seleucus Nicator, as I have related in my Syrian history. Pompey added it to the Roman sway, and Scaurus was appointed praetor over it. After Scaurus the Senate sent others, including Gabinius, who made war against the Alexandrians, and after Gabinius, Crassus, who lost his life in the Parthian war, and after Crassus, Bibulus. At the time of Caesar’s death and the intestine strife which followed, tyrants got possession of the cities one by one, and they were assisted by the Parthians, who made an irruption into Syria after the disaster to Crassus and coöperated with the tyrants. Antony drove out the latter, who took refuge in Parthia. He then imposed very heavy tribute on the masses and committed the outrage already mentioned against the Palmyreans, and did not wait for the disturbed country to become quiet, but distributed his army in winter quarters in the provinces, and himself went to Egypt to join Cleopatra.
She gave him a magnificent reception, and he spent the winter there without
the insignia of his office and with the habit and mode of life of a private
person, either because he was in a foreign jurisdiction, in a city under
royal sway, or because he regarded his wintering as a festal occasion. He
laid aside the cares and duties of a general, and wore the square-cut
garment of the Greeks instead of the costume of his own country, and the
white Attic shoe of the Athenian and Alexandrian priests, which they call
the
As Octavius was journeying to Rome he became dangerously ill at Brundusium, and a rumor gained currency that he was dead. On his recovery he returned to the city and showed to Antony’s friends the letters Antony had written. The Antonians directed Calenus to give Octavius the two legions, and wrote to Sextius in Africa to turn that province over to him. This was the course of the Antonians while, as it appeared that Lepidus had not been guilty of any serious wrong, Octavius transferred Africa to him in exchange for his former provinces. He also sold the remainder of the property confiscated under the conscriptions. The task of assigning the soldiers to their colonies and dividing the land was one of exceeding difficulty. The soldiers demanded the cities which had been selected for them before the war as prizes for their valor. The cities demanded that the whole of Italy should share the burden, or that the cities should cast lots with the other cities, and that those who gave the land should be paid the value of it; but there was no money. They came to Rome in crowds, young and old, women and children, to the forum and the temples, uttering lamentations, saying that they had done no wrong for which they, Italians, should be driven from their fields and their hearthstones, like people conquered in war. The Romans mourned and wept with them, especially when they reflected that the war had been waged, and the rewards of victory given, not in behalf of the commonwealth, but against themselves and for a change of the form of government; that the colonies were established so that democracy should never again lift its head, — colonies composed of hirelings settled there by the rulers to be in readiness for whatever purpose they might be wanted.
Octavius explained to the cities the necessity of the case, but he knew that
it would not satisfy them; and it did not. The soldiers encroached upon
their neighbors in an insolent manner, seizing more than had been given to
them and choosing the best lands; nor did they cease when Octavius rebuked
them and made them numerous other presents. They were contemptuous in the
knowledge that their rulers needed them to confirm their power, for the five
years’ term of the triumvirate was passing away, and army and rulers needed
the services of each other for mutual security. The chiefs depended on the
soldiers for the continuance of their government, while, for the control of
what they had received, the soldiers depended on the permanence of the
government of those who had given it. Believing that they could not keep a
firm hold unless the givers had a strong government,As they [the soldiers] could not be secure in their own holdings
unless all of Sulla’s affairs were on a firm foundation, they were his
stoutest champions,
etc. He accordingly filled the gap with the words
Observing this, Lucius Antonius, the brother of Antony, who was then consul,
and Fulvia, the wife of Antony, and Manius, his procurator during his
absence, resorted to artifices to delay the settlement of the colonies till
Antony should return home, in order that it might not seem to be wholly the
work of Octavius, and that he might not reap the thanks alone, and Antony be
bereft of the favor of the soldiers. As this could not be done, on account
of the haste of the soldiers, they asked that Octavius should take the
colony leaders of Antony’s legions from Antony’s own friends, although the
agreement with Antony yielded the selection to Octavius exclusively. They
made it a matter of complaint that Antony was not present.
Octavius knew that these citizens were suffering injustice, but he was
without means to prevent it. There was no money to pay the value of the land
to the cultivators,
Having been called, about that time, to the Campus Martius for a division of the land, they came in haste while it was still night, and they grew angry because Octavius delayed his coming. Nonius, a centurion, chided them with considerable freedom, urging decent treatment of the commander by the commanded, and saying that the cause of the delay was Octavius’ illness, not his disregard of them. They first jeered at him as a sycophant. Then, as the excitement waxed hot on both sides, they reviled him, threw stones at him, and pursued him when he fled. Finally he plunged into the river and they pulled him out and killed him and threw his body into the road where Octavius was about to pass along. The friends of Octavius advised him not to go among them, but to keep out of the way of their mad career. But he went forward, thinking that their madness would be augmented if he did not come. When he saw the body of Nonius he turned aside. Then, assuming that the crime had been committed by a few, he chided them and advised them to exercise forbearance toward each other hereafter, and proceeded to divide the land. He allowed the meritorious ones to ask for rewards, and he gave to some who were not meritorious, contrary to their expectation. Finally the crowd were confounded. They repented and were ashamed of their importunity. They condemned themselves and asked him to search out and punish the slayers of Nonius. He replied that he knew them and would punish them only with their own guilty consciences and the condemnation of their comrades. The soldiers, thus honored with pardon, rewards, and gifts, changed at once to joyful acclamations.
Let these two instances serve as examples of the prevailing insubordination. The cause was that the generals, for the most part, as is usually the case in civil wars, were not regularly chosen; that their armies were not drawn from the enrolment according to the custom of the fathers, nor for the benefit of their country; that they did not serve the public so much as they did the individuals who brought them together; and that they served these not by the force of law, but by reason of private promises; not against the common enemy, but against private foes; not against foreigners, but against fellow-citizens, their equals in rank. All these things impaired military discipline, and the soldiers thought that they were not so much serving in the army as lending assistance, by their own favor and judgment, to leaders who needed them for their own personal ends. Desertion, which had formerly been unpardonable, was now rewarded with gifts, and whole armies resorted to it, including some illustrious men, who did not consider it desertion to change to a similar cause, for all parties were alike, since neither of them could be distinguished as battling against the common enemy of the Roman people. The common pretence of the generals that they were all striving for the good of the country made desertion easy in the thought that one could serve his country in any party. Understanding these facts the generals tolerated this behavior, for they knew that their authority over their armies depended on donatives rather than on law. Thus, everything was torn in factions, and the armies indulged in insubordination toward the leaders of the factions.
Now famine began to afflict Rome, the supplies by sea being cut off by Pompeius, and Italian agriculture ruined by the wars. Whatever food was produced was consumed by the troops. Many robberies were committed by night in the city. There were acts of violence worse than robbery which went unpunished, and which were supposed to have been committed by soldiers. The people closed their shops and drove the magistrates from their places as though there were no need of courts of justice, or of the useful arts in a city oppressed by hunger and infested with brigands.
Lucius Antonius, who was a republican and ill affected toward the triumvirate, which seemed not likely to come to an end at the appointed time, fell into controversy, and even graver differences, with Octavius. He alone received kindly, and promised aid to, the agriculturists who had been deprived of their lands and who were now the suppliants of every man of importance; and they promised to carry out his orders. Antony’s soldiers, and Octavius also, blamed him for working against Antony’s interests, and Fulvia blamed him for stirring up war at an inopportune time, until Manius maliciously changed her mind by telling her that as long as Italy remained at peace Antony would stay with Cleopatra, but that if war should break out there he would come back speedily. Then Fulvia, moved by a woman’s jealousy, incited Lucius to discord. While Octavius was leading out the last of the colonies she sent the children of Antony, together with Lucius, to follow him, so that he should not acquire too great eclat with the army by being seen alone. A body of Octavius’ cavalry made an expedition to the coast of Bruttium, which Pompeius was ravaging, and Lucius either thought or pretended to think that it had been sent against himself and Antony’s children. Accordingly, he betook himself to the Antonian colonies to collect a body-guard, and accused Octavius to the soldiers as being treacherous to Antony. Octavius replied that everything was on a friendly and harmonius footing between himself and Antony, and that Lucius was trying to stir up a war between them for another reason, in that he was working against the triumvirate, by virtue of which the soldiers had a firm hold upon their colonies, and that the cavalry were now in Bruttium executing the triumvirate’s orders.
When the officers of the army learned these facts, they arbitrated between
Lucius and Octavius at Teanum and brought them to an agreement on the
following terms: That the consuls should exercise their office in the manner
of the fathers and not be hindered by the triumvirs; that the land should be
assigned only to those who fought at Philippi; that of the money derived
from confiscated property, and of the value of that which was still to be
sold, Antony’s soldiers in Italy should have an equal share; that neither
Antony nor Octavius should draw soldiers from Italy by conscription
hereafter; that two of Antony’s legions should serve with Octavius in the
campaign against Pompeius; that the passes of the Alps should be opened to
the forces sent by Octavius into Spain, and that Asinius Pollio should not
further interfere with them; that Lucius should be satisfied with those
conditions, should dispense with his body-guard, and administer his office
fearlessly. Such was the agreement which they made with each other through
the influence of the officers of the army. Of these only the two last were
carried into effect, and Salvidienus crossed the Alps unhindered.Salvidienus crossed
the Alps in spite of the forces guarding them,
which is certainly a
forced interpretation. Schweighäuser pointed out that it was
contrary to the agreement just made, viz., that the passes of the Alps
should be opened to the forces of Octavius. He accordingly considered
the passage corrupt and put a lacuna after the word
As the other conditions were not carried into effect, or were delayed, Lucius
departed to Praeneste, saying that he was in fear of Octavius, who,
by virtue of his office, had a guard, while he (Lucius) was unprotected.
Fulvia went there to meet Lucius, saying now that she had fears for her
children on account of Lepidus. She used him for a pretext this time instead
of Octavius. Both of them wrote these things to Antony, and friends were
sent to him with the letters, who were to give him particulars about each
complaint. Although I have searched, I have not been able to find any clear
account of what Antony wrote in reply. The officers of the armies bound
themselves by an oath to act as umpires again between their magistrates, to
decide what was right, and to coerce whichever should refuse to obey the
decision; and they summoned Lucius and his friends to attend for this
purpose. These refused to come, and Octavius reproached them in invidious
terms to the officers of the army and in the presence of the optimates of
Rome. The latter hastened to Lucius and implored him to have pity on the
city and on Italy, torn by the civil wars, and to accept the arbitration of
themselves, or of the officers, whatever the decision might be.She girded
herself with a sword, gave the watchwords to the soldiers, and often
harangued them.
Velleius (ii. 74) says: Lucius Antonius, a partaker
of his brother’s vices, but destitute of the virtues that the latter
sometimes showed, by accusing Octavius before the veterans, and by
calling to arms those who had lost their fields in the prescribed
distribution of the lands and the naming of the colonies, had collected
a large army. On the other hand Fulvia, the wife of Antony, who was a
woman in nothing but her form, took part in the contest, and threw
everything into armed strife and tumult. She had first fixed the seat of
war at Praeneste.
Plutarch says that when Antony had left
Alexandria to make an expedition against the Parthians, and had gone as
far as Phœnicia, he received dolorous letters from Fulvia,
which caused him to turn about and set sail for Italy with two hundred
ships. While making the voyage he learned from friends who were fleeing
that Fulvia had been the cause of the war, being by nature restless and
headstrong, and hoping to tear Antony away from Cleopatra by stirring up
commotion in Italy.
(
Although Lucius had respect for the speakers and for what they said, Manius boldly declared that while Antony was doing nothing but collecting money from foreigners, Octavius was, by his favors, preoccupying the affections of the army and the desirable places in Italy; that in fraud of Antony he had freed Cisalpine Gaul, which had previously been given to Antony; that he had assigned to the soldiers almost the whole of Italy instead of the eighteen cities; that, instead of the twenty-eight legions that had participated in the battle, he had admitted thirty-four to a share of the lands and also of the money from the temples, which he had collected on the pretext of fighting Pompeius, against whom he had done nothing as yet, although the city was oppressed by famine; that he had distributed this money in order to curry favor with the soldiers, to the prejudice of Antony, and that the property of the proscribed had been not so much sold as given to the soldiers outright; and, finally, that if he really wanted peace he should give his reasons for what he had already done, and for the future do only what should be agreed upon in common. Thus arrogantly did Manius proclaim his views, implying that Octavius could not do anything by his own authority and that his agreement with Antony was of no validity, although it provided that each should have absolute power over the affairs committed to him, and that each should ratify what was done by the other. When Octavius saw that they were everywhere preparing for war, he made similar preparations on his own side.
Two legions of the army which had been colonized at Ancona and which had served under the elder Caesar and under Antony, hearing of their respective preparations for war, and being moved by friendship for each of them, sent ambassadors to Rome to beseech them both to come to an agreement. Octavius replied that he was not making war against Antony, but that Lucius was making war against him. The ambassadors then united with the officers of this army in a common embassy to Lucius asking him to submit his controversy with Octavius to a tribunal; and they made it plain what they would do if he should not accept the decision. Lucius and his friends accepted the proposal, and fixed the place for the trial at Gabii, a city midway between Rome and Praeneste. A council-chamber was prepared for the arbiters, and two platforms for the speakers in the centre, as in a regular trial. Octavius, who arrived first, sent some horsemen along the road by which Lucius was to come, in order to find out whether any stratagem was discoverable. These met certain horsemen of Lucius, either his advance guard or men spying like the others, and as the two parties came into collision some of them were killed. Lucius retreated, saying that he was afraid of being entrapped, and, although recalled by the officers of the army, who promised to escort him, he could not be persuaded to come again.
Thus the negotiations came to nothing, and Octavius and Lucius resolved upon
war and issued proclamations full of bitterness against each other. The army
of Lucius consisted of six legions of infantry, which he commanded by virtue
of his consulship, and eleven others belonging to Antony, which were under
the command of Calenus. These were all in Italy. Octavius had four legions
at Capua and some praetorian cohorts about his person. Salvidienus
was leading six other legions to Spain.
but this is
obviously a copyist’s error, since we read at the beginning of Sec. 27
that Octavius hastily recalled Salvidienus from his march
The affairs of Octavius were in disorder outside of Italy also. Pompeius, by
reason of the proscription, the colonizing of the soldiers, and the
dissensions with Lucius, had gained much in reputation and power. Those who
feared for their safety, or had been despoiled of their property, or who
utterly abhorred the form of government, mostly went and joined him. Young
men, also, eager for military service for the sake of gain, and who thought
that it made no difference under whom they served, since all service was
Roman service, rather preferred to join Pompeius as representing the better
cause. He had become rich by sea-robbery and had a numerous fleet and a full
complement of men. Murcus joined him with two legions of soldiers, 500
archers, a large sum of money, and eighty ships. He also sent after the
other army
In Africa Sextius, Antony’s lieutenant, had just delivered his army, in pursuance of an order from Lucius, to Fango, a lieutenant of Octavius. He was ordered to resume the command, and as Fango would not relinquish it he collected a force composed of retired veterans, a miscellaneous crowd of Africans, and auxiliaries of the native princes, and made war on him. Fango, having been defeated on both wings and having lost his camp, thought that he had been betrayed, and committed suicide; and Sextius again became master of the two African provinces. Bocchus, king of Mauritania, at the instance of Lucius, made war on Carinas, who was Octavius’ procurator in Spain. Ahenobarbus, who was patrolling the Adriatic with seventy ships, two legions of soldiers, and a force of archers and slingers, light-armed troops and gladiators, devastated the regions subject to the triumvirs. He sailed against Brundusium, captured some of the triremes of Octavius, burned others, shut the inhabitants up in their walls, and plundered their territory.
Octavius sent a legion of soldiers to Brundusium and hastily recalled Salvidienus from his march to Spain. Both Octavius and Lucius sent recruiting officers through-out Italy, who had skirmishes with each other of more or less importance, and frequent ambuscades. The good-will of the Italians was of great service to Lucius, as they believed that he was fighting for them against the new colonies. Not only the cities that had been designated for the army, but almost the whole of Italy, rose, fearing like treatment. They drove out of the towns, or killed, those who were borrowing money from the temples for Octavius, manned their walls, and joined Lucius. On the other hand, the colonized soldiers joined Octavius. Each one in both parties took sides as though this were his own war.
Though these events were taking place, Octavius, nevertheless, convoked the
Senate and the equestrian order and addressed them as follows: I know very
well that I am accused by Lucius and his friends of weakness and want of
courage because I do not fight them, and that I shall be still further
accused on account of my calling you together. I have strong forces who have
suffered wrong in common with me, both those who have been dispossessed of
their colonies by Lucius and the others whom I have in hand. I am strong in
all respects except only in the purpose to fight. I am not fond of fighting
in civil wars except under dire necessity, or of wasting the remainder of
our citizens in conflicts with each other; least of all in this civil war,
whose horrors will be announced to us not from Macedonia or Thrace, but will
take place in Italy itself, which, if it becomes the field of battle, must
suffer countless evils in addition to the loss of life. For these reasons I
hesitate. And now I protest that I have done Antony no wrong. Nor have I
suffered any wrong from him. I beseech you to reason with Lucius and his
friends on your own account, and to bring them to a reconciliation with me.
If you cannot now persuade them, I shall presently show them that I have
hitherto been moved by good-will, not by cowardice. I ask you to be
witnesses for me not only among yourselves, but also to Antony, and to
sustain me on account of the arrogance of Lucius.
So spake Octavius. Thereupon some of his hearers went again to Praeneste. Lucius said to them merely, that both sides had already begun hostilities, that Octavius was practising deception; for he had lately sent a legion to Brundusium to prevent Antony from coming home. Manius showed a letter of Antony’s, either true or fictitious, saying that they should fight if anybody assailed his dignity. When the senators asked if anybody had assailed Antony’s dignity, and urged Manius to submit that question to trial, he indulged in many other quibbles till they went away without transacting their business. Nor did they collectively bring any answer to Octavius, either because they had communicated it each for himself, or because they were ashamed, or for some other reason. The war broke out and Octavius set forth to take part in it, leaving Lepidus with two legions to guard Rome. Most of the optimates then showed, by joining Lucius, that they were not pleased with the rule of the triumvirs.
The following were the principal events of the war. A sedition broke out in two of Lucius’ legions at Alba, which expelled their commanding officers and started to revolt. Both Octavius and Lucius hastened to them. Lucius arrived there first and kept them by a large donative and great promises. While Furnius was bringing a reënforcement to Lucius, Octavius fell upon his rear guard. Furnius took refuge on a hill and withdrew by night to Sentia, a city of his own faction. Octavius did not dare to follow by night, suspecting an ambush, but the next day he laid siege to Sentia and Furnius’ camp together. Lucius, who was hastening toward Rome, sent forward three cohorts, which effected an entrance into the city clandestinely by night. He followed with his main army and some cavalry and gladiators. Nonius, who had charge of the gates, admitted him, and handed over to him the forces under his own command. Lepidus fled to Octavius. Lucius made a speech to the citizens, saying that he should visit punishment upon Octavius and Lepidus for their lawless rule, and that his brother would voluntarily resign his share of it and accept the consulship, exchanging an unlawful magistracy for a lawful one, and establishing the government of their fathers in place of a tyranny.
All were delighted with this speech, and thought that the government of the triumvirs was already ended. Lucius was saluted as imperator by the people. He marched against Octavius, and collected a fresh army from the cities colonized by Antony’s soldiers, and strengthened their fortifications. These colonies were well affected toward Antony. Barbatius, a quaestor of Antony, who had had some difficulty with him and was returning home for that reason, said, in answer to inquiries, that Antony was displeased with those who were making war on Octavius to the prejudice of their common sway; whereupon some, who were not aware of the deception practised by Barbatius, changed sides from Lucius to Octavius. Lucius put himself in the way of Salvidienus, who was returning to Octavius with a large army from Gaul. Asinius and Ventidius, Antony’s generals, were following Salvidienus to prevent him from advancing. Agrippa, who was the closest friend of Octavius, fearing lest Salvidienus should be surrounded, seized Sutrium, a stronghold very useful to Lucius, expecting that Lucius would turn from Salvidienus against himself, and that Salvidienus, who would then be in the rear of Lucius, would assist him (Agrippa). It all turned out as Agrippa had anticipated. So Lucius, having failed of his undertaking, marched to join Asinius and Ventidius. Salvidienus and Agrippa harassed him on both sides, watching especially for an opportunity to catch him in the defiles.
When Lucius perceived their design he did not dare to come to an engagement
with both of them closing in upon him. So he turned aside to Perusia,
aid of the besieged, and he sent Tisienus with 4000 horse to pillage the enemy’s supplies, in order to force him to raise the siege. Lucius entered within the walls of Perusia so that he might winter in a strong place, if necessary, until Ventidius and Asinius should arrive.
Octavius, with all haste and with his whole army, drew a line of circumvallation around Perusia fifty-six stades in circuit, on account of the hill on which it was situated; he extended long arms to the Tiber, so that nothing could be introduced into the place. Lucius built a similar line of countervallation, thus fortifying the foot of the hill. Fulvia urged Ventidius, Asinius, Ateius, and Calenus to hasten from Gaul to the assistance of Lucius, and collected reënforcements, which she sent to Lucius under the lead of Plancus. Plancus destroyed one of Octavius’ legions, which was on the march to Rome. While Asinius and Ventidius were proceeding, at the instance of Fulvia and Manius, to the relief of Lucius (but with hesitation and doubt as to Antony’s preference), in order to raise the blockade, Octavius and Agrippa, leaving a guard at Perusia, threw themselves in the way. The former, who had not yet formed a junction with each other and were not proceeding with much alacrity, retreated, — Asinius to Ravenna and Ventidius to Ariminum. Plancus took refuge in Spoletium. Octavius stationed a force in front of each, to prevent them from forming a junction, and returned to Perusia, where he speedily strengthened his investment of the place and doubled the depth and width of his ditch to the dimensions of thirty feet each way. He increased the height of his wall and built 1500 wooden towers on it, sixty feet apart. He had also strong redoubts and every other kind of intrenchment, with double front, to besiege those within and to repel assaults from without. While these works were under construction there were frequent sorties and fights, in which the forces of Octavius had the advantage in the use of missiles, and the gladiators of Lucius were better at hand-to-hand fighting. So these killed many at close quarters.
When the work of Octavius was finished famine fastened upon Lucius, and the
evil grew more pressing, since neither he nor the city had made preparations
before-hand.
Ventidius and his friends, ashamed to look on while Lucius was perishing of
hunger, all moved to his support, intending to overpower the forces
surrounding and besieging him. Agrippa and Salvidienus went to meet them
with still larger forces. Fearing lest they should be surrounded, they
diverged to the stronghold of Fulginium,
As no end of the famine, or of the deaths, could be discerned, the soldiers
became restive under the condition of affairs, and implored Lucius to make
another attempt upon the enemy’s works, believing that they could break
through them completely. He approved of their ardor, saying, In our recent
battle we did not fight in a way corresponding to our present necessity. Now
we must either surrender, or, if that seems worse than death, we must fight
to the death.
All assented eagerly, and, in order that no one should have
the night for an excuse, they demanded to be led out by daylight. Lucius
marched out at dawn. He took an abundance of iron tools, for wall fighting,
and ladders of every form. He carried machines for filling the ditches, and
folding towers from which planks could be thrown to the walls; also all
kinds of missiles and stones and wickerwork to be thrown upon the palisades.
They made a violent assault, filled up the ditch, scaled the palisades, and
advanced to the walls, which some of them undermined, while others applied
the ladders, and others simultaneously moved up the towers and defended
themselves with stones, arrows, and leaden balls, with absolute contempt of
death. This was done at many different places, and the enemy being drawn in
many different directions made a more feeble resistance.
The planks having been thrown upon the walls at some places, the struggle became very hazardous, for the forces of Lucius fighting on bridges were exposed to missiles and javelins on every side. They forced their way, nevertheless, and a few leaped over the wall. Others followed, and they would speedily have accomplished something important in their desperation had not the fact become known to Octavius that they had not many such machines, and had not the best of his reserves been brought to the assistance of the tired men. These fresh troops flung the assailants down from the walls, broke their machines in pieces, and hurled missiles upon them contemptuously from above. Their enemy, although their shields and bodies were pierced and even their voices had failed, held their ground bravely. When the corpses of those who had been killed on the wall were stripped and thrown down among them, they could not bear the indignity, but turned away from the spectacle and stood for a moment undecided, like athletes taking a breathing-spell in the gymnastic games. Lucius had pity on them in this condition and sounded a retreat. Then the troops of Octavius joyfully clashed their arms as for a victory, whereupon those of Lucius were roused to anger and again seized their ladders (although they had no more towers), and carried them to the walls with desperation. Yet they did not do any harm to the enemy, for they could not. Lucius ran among them and besought them to sacrifice their lives no longer, and led them back groaning and reluctant.
This was the end of this hotly contested siege. In order that the enemy might not make another attempt on his works, Octavius stationed a part of his army, that was held in reserve, alongside the fortifications, and instructed others in other places to leap upon the wall at the sound of the trumpet. Although no one urged them on, they went through this exercise continually, in order to become familiar with it, and to inspire the enemy with fear. The troops of Lucius began to grow down-hearted, and, as usually happens in such cases, the guards relaxed their vigilance, and thus desertion became more frequent, not only of the common soldiers, but, in some cases, of the higher officers also. And now Lucius inclined toward peace, out of pity for the perishing multitude, but the fears of some of the enemies of Octavius for their own safety still restrained him. But as Octavius was observed to treat the deserters kindly, and the desire for peace increased among all, Lucius began to fear lest, if he refused, he should be delivered up.
Accordingly, having made a sort of test which gave him encouragement, Lucius
called his army together and spoke as follows: It was my intention,
fellow-soldiers, to restore the republic to you when I saw that the
government of the triumvirs was a tyranny, which was established, indeed, on
the pretext of combating Brutus and Cassius, but was not relaxed after their
death. Lepidus had been deprived of his share of the government, Antony was
far away collecting money, and this one man was managing everything
according to his own will, and the ancient system of Roman government was
only a pretence and a laughing-stock. With the intention of reverting to the
freedom and democratic government of our ancestors, I asked that after the
rewards of victory had been distributed the monarchy should be dissolved.
When my request was not granted, I sought to enforce it by virtue of my
office. Octavius falsely accused me, before the army, of obstructing the
colonies out of pity for the landowners. I was ignorant of this slander for
a long time, and even when I learned of it I did not suppose that anybody
could believe it, when one saw that the colony officers were men assigned by
my very self to divide the lands among you. But the calumny misled some
people, who joined Octavius in order to make war against us as they think.
But eventually they will find that they have been warring against their own
interests. I affirm that you have chosen the better cause, and that you have
suffered for it beyond your strength. We are vanquished, not by our enemies,
but by hunger, to which we have been left a prey by our own generals.
After speaking thus he at once selected three men from the optimates for this mission. The multitude wept, some on their own account, some on account of their general, who appeared to them to have been actuated by the most excellent and democratic purpose, and who now yielded to extreme necessity. The three envoys, when admitted to the presence of Octavius, reminded him that the soldiers on both sides were all of one race, and that they had made campaigns together. They called to mind the friendship of the nobility on either side and also the virtue of their ancestors, who did not allow their differences to become irreconcilable. They advanced other like arguments which were calculated to prevail with him. Octavius, knowing that some of the enemy were still raw recruits, while others were colonized veterans, replied artfully that he would grant amnesty to Antony’s soldiers out of regard for him, but that the others must surrender at discretion. This he said in the presence of all, but, taking aside Furnius, one of the three, he led him to expect mild treatment for Lucius and the rest, except his own personal enemies.
These personal enemies of Octavius, having learned of Furnius’ private interview and suspecting that it related to themselves, reproached him when he came back, and demanded of Lucius either that he should ask a new treaty, which should include all alike, or fight to the death, saying that this had not been a private war for any individual, but a public one in behalf of the country. Lucius in pity commended them as men of the same rank as himself, and said that he would send another embassy. Then he added that no one was better fitted for this task than himself, and went immediately without a herald, merely preceded by some persons who went in advance to announce to Octavius his coming. The latter at once advanced to meet him. There they saw each other surrounded by their friends and distinguished by the standards and military equipment of generals on either side. Then Lucius, dismissing his friends, went forward with two lictors only, showing his state of mind by his outward appearance. Octavius understood and imitated his example, showing his intended good-will toward Lucius. When he saw the latter hastening to pass inside his fortification, indicating thereby that he had already surrendered, Octavius anticipated him and went outside the fortification in order that Lucius might still be free to consult and decide concerning his own interests. Thus as they moved forward they foreshadowed their intentions to each other in advance, by their retinue and their outward appearance.
When they came to the ditch they saluted each other, and Lucius said: If I
were a foreigner waging war against you, Octavius, I should consider it
disgraceful to be vanquished in this way and still more disgraceful to
surrender, and I should have for myself an easy means of deliverance from
such humiliation. Since I have been contending with a countryman, my equal
in rank, in a matter appertaining to our common country, I do not consider
it disgraceful to be beaten in such a cause by such a man. This I say not to
deprecate any suffering that you may choose to inflict upon me (for you see
that I have come to your camp without any guarantee), but to ask for others
such pardon as may be just, and conducive to your own interests. That I may
make this clear to you it is necessary to separate their cause from mine, so
that, when you know that I am the only one to blame, you may visit your
wrath upon me, and not think that I have come here to bandy words (that
would be inopportune), but to tell the truth, for it is not in my power to
speak otherwise.
I undertook this war against you, not in order to succeed to the leadership
by destroying you, but to restore to the country the patrician government
which had been subverted by the triumvirate, as not even yourself will deny.
For when you created the triumvirate you acknowledged that it was not in
accordance with law, but you established it as something necessary and
temporary because Cassius and Brutus were still alive and you could not be
reconciled to them. When they, who had been the head of the faction, were
dead, and the remainder, if there were any left, were bearing arms, not
against the state, but because they feared you, and moreover the five years’
term was running out, I demanded that the magistracies should be revived in
accordance with the customs of our fathers, not even preferring my brother
to my country, but hoping to persuade him to assent upon his return and
hastening to bring this about during my own term of office. If you had begun
this reform you alone would have reaped the glory. Since I was not able to
persuade you, I thought to march against the city and to use force, being a
citizen, a nobleman, and a consul. These are the causes of the war I waged
and these alone; not my brother, nor Manius, nor Fulvia, nor the
colonization of those who fought at Philippi, nor pity for the cultivators
who were deprived of their holdings, since I myself appointed the leaders of
colonies to my brother’s legions who deprived the cultivators of their
possessions and divided them among the soldiers. Yet you brought this charge
against me before the soldiers, shifting the cause of the war from yourself
to the land distribution, and in this way chiefly you drew them to your side
and overcame me, for they were persuaded that I was warring against them,
and that they were defending themselves against my wrong-doing. You
certainly needed to use artifice in the war you were waging. Now that you
have conquered, if you are the enemy of the country you must consider me
your enemy also, since I wished what I thought was for her advantage, but
was prevented by famine from accomplishing it.
While I say these things I surrender myself to you, as I have already
declared, to do with me whatever you wish. I came here alone merely to show
what I have thought of you heretofore and what I still think. So much for
myself. Concerning my friends and my whole army, if you will not discredit
my words, I will give you some advice for your own best interests, and that
is, that you inflict no severity upon them on account of the quarrel between
you and me. As you are a mortal and in the hands of fortune, which is always
fickle, do not deter those who might be willing to incur danger for you in
hazardous or trying times hereafter, by teaching them that under your rules
there is no hope of safety except for the victors. Even if all advice from
an enemy is suspected or untrustworthy, I would not hesitate to implore you
not to punish my friends for my fault and my ill fortune, but to put the
whole punishment on me, who am alone to blame. I purposely left my friends
behind so that I might not seem, by using these words in their presence, to
be securing favor for myself in an underhand way.
After Lucius had thus spoken he relapsed into silence, and Octavius said:
When I saw you, Lucius, approaching without any guarantee I hastened to
meet you while you were still outside my intrenchments, so that you might
even now be master of your own counsels and be able to say or do whatever
you should think best for your own interests. Since you deliver yourself to
me (as is customary to those who acknowledge that they are in the wrong), it
is not necessary that I should discuss the false accusations that you have
brought against me with so much art. You began by injuring me and you
continue to do so. If you were here negotiating a treaty, you would be
dealing with a victor whom you had wronged. Now that you surrender yourself
and your friends and your army without conditions, you take away not only
all resentment, but also the power which, under negotiations for a treaty,
you would necessarily have given me. There is involved in this question not
only what you and your friends ought to suffer, but what it is becoming in
me, as a just man, to do. I shall make the latter my chief consideration on
account of the gods, on my own account, and on yours, Lucius, and I shall
not disappoint the expectation with which you came to me.
These things they
said to each other, as nearly as it is possible to gather the meaning of the
speakers from the Memoirs and translate it into our language.
Lucius sent tribunes to receive the watchword for the army from Octavius. They took the army roll to him, as it is still customary for the tribune who asks for the watchword to deliver to the commander the daily register of the number of troops present. After they had received the watchword they still kept their outposts on duty, for Octavius himself ordered that each army should keep its own guard that night. The next morning Octavius offered sacrifice, and Lucius sent his soldiers to him bearing their arms, but prepared for marching. They saluted Octavius as imperator while still at some distance, and each legion took its separate position as Octavius had directed, the colonized veterans being apart from the new levies. When Octavius had finished the sacrifice he took his seat in front of the tribunal, crowned with laurel, the symbol of victory, and ordered them all to lay down their arms where they stood. When they had done so he ordered the veterans to draw nearer, intending to reproach them for their ingratitude and to strike terror into them. It was known beforehand what he was about to do, and his own army, either purposely (as soldiers are often advised beforehand), or moved by sympathy as for their own relatives, broke from the formation in which they had been placed, crowded around Lucius’ men as they approached their former fellow-soldiers, embraced them, wept with them, and implored Octavius in their behalf, and ceased not crying out and embracing them, the new levies sharing in the outburst of feeling, so that it was impossible to distinguish or discriminate between them.
For this reason Octavius did not persist in his intention, but, after
appeasing the tumult with difficulty, addressed his own men as follows: You
have always behaved in such a way to me, fellow-soldiers, that you can ask
nothing from me in vain. I think that the new levies served Lucius under
compulsion. I intended to ask the old soldiers, who have often served with
us and who are now saved from punishment by you, what they have suffered at
our hands, or what favor they have asked in vain, or what greater favors
they expected from anybody else, that they have taken up arms against me,
against you, against them-selves. All the trouble I have met with has grown
out of the division of the lands, in which they had their share. And now if
you will permit me I will ask them these questions.
They would not allow
him to do so, but continued their beseeching. I grant what you wish,
he
said. They are dismissed without punishment for their wrongdoing, provided
they will hereafter be like-minded with you.
They promised on both sides
with acclamations and thanks to Octavius, who allowed some of his own men to
entertain some of their men as guests. He ordered the remainder to pitch
their tents where they had been stationed, at a certain distance from the
others, until he should assign them towns for winter quarters and appoint
persons to lead them thither.
Then, seated on his tribunal, Octavius summoned from Perusia Lucius and the Romans of responsibility who were with him. Many of the senators and knights came down, all presenting a pitiful appearance by reason of their sudden change of fortune. As soon as they passed out of Perusia a guard was stationed around it. When they reached the tribunal Octavius placed Lucius by his own side. Of the rest, some were taken in charge by the friends of Octavius, others by centurions, all of whom had been instructed beforehand to show them honor and to keep watch upon them unobserved. He commanded those Perusians to come forward who had stretched out their hands to him from the walls, all except their town council, and as they presented themselves he pardoned them. The councillors were thrown into prison and soon afterward put to death, except Lucius Aemilius, who had sat as a judge at Rome in the trial of the murderers of Caesar, who had voted openly for condemnation, and had advised all the others to do the same in order to expiate the guilt.
Octavius intended to turn Perusia itself over to the soldiers for plunder,
but Cestius, one of the citizens, who was somewhat out of his mind, who had
fought in Macedonia and for that reason called himself the Macedonian, set
fire to his house and plunged into the flames. A strong wind fanned the
conflagration and drove it over the whole of Perusia, which was entirely
consumed, except the temple of Vulcan. Such was the end of Perusia, a city
renowned for its antiquity and importance. It is said that it was one of the
first twelve cities built by the Etruscans in Italy in the olden time. For
this reason the worship of Juno prevailed there, as among the Etruscans
generally. But thereafter those who shared among themselves the remains of
the city took Vulcan for their tutelary deity instead of Juno. On the
following day Octavius made peace with all of them, but the soldiers did not
desist from tumults against some of them until the latter were killed. These
were chiefly the personal enemies of Octavius, namely, Canutius, Gaius
Flavius, Clodius Bithynicus, and others. Such was the conclusion of the
siege of Lucius in Perusia, and thus came to an end a war which had promised
to be long-continued and most grievous to Italy.Who.
exclaims the historian, can sufficiently wonder at the changes of
fortune and at the mutability of human affairs?
Tiberius Nero had been
a suitor for the hand of Cicero’s daughter Tullia at the time when
Dolabella obtained it. (
Now Asinius, Plancus, Ventidius, Crassus, Ateius, and the others of that
party, who had forces not to be despised, numbering about thirteen legions
of disciplined
troops and upward of 6500 horse, considering Lucius the chief actor in the
war, retired to the sea-coast by various routes, some to Brundusium, some to
Ravenna, some to Tarentum, some to Murcus and Ahenobarbus, and still others
to Antony. The friends of Octavius followed them, offering terms of peace,
and harassing those who refused, especially the infantry. From among them
only two legions, belonging to Plancus, who were intercepted at Cameria,
were persuaded by Agrippa to desert to him. Fulvia fled with her children to
Dicaearchia,
Octavius was planning to get possession of another considerable army
belonging to Antony, that was under the command of Fufius Calenus near the
Alps. He already had suspicions of Antony, and he hoped, if the latter
remained friendly, to preserve these forces for him, or, if war should break
out, to add this large force to his own strength. While he was still
delaying and looking around for a fair-seeming occasion, Calenus died.
Octavius, believing that he had found a good excuse for both transactions,
went and took possession of the army and of Gaul and Spain besides, which
were Antony’s provinces.
As it was still winter, Antony retained the deputies of the colonized veterans, who had been sent to him, and concealed his intentions. In the spring he set out from Alexandria and proceeded by land to Tyre, and thence by sea, touching at Cyprus and Rhodes, to the province of Asia. There he learned of the doings at Perusia and he blamed his brother and Fulvia, and, most of all, Manius. He found Fulvia at Athens, whither she had fled from Brundusium. His mother, Julia, who had fled to Pompeius, had been sent thither by him from Sicily with warships, and escorted by some of the optimates of his party, by Lucius Libo, his father-in-law, by Saturninus and others, who, being attracted by Antony’s capacity for great deeds, sought to bring him into friendly relations with Pompeius and to form an alliance between them against Octavius. Antony replied that he thanked Pompeius for sending his mother and that he would requite him for the service in due time; that if there should be a war with Octavius he would ally himself with Pompeius, but that if Octavius should adhere to their agreements he would endeavor to reconcile him with Pompeius. Such was his answer.
When Octavius returned from Gaul to Rome he heard about those who had set
sail for Athens. Not knowing exactly what answer Antony had given them, he
began to excite the colonized soldiers against the latter, representing that
Antony intended to bring back Pompeius with the owners of the lands which
the soldiers now held, for most of the owners had taken refuge with
Pompeius. Although this cause of irritation was plausible, the soldiers
would not even then take up arms against Antony with any zeal, the
reputation he had gained at Philippi having made him popular. Octavius
considered himself far superior to Antony, to Pompeius, and to Ahenobarbus
in the number of troops, as he now had more than forty legions, but as he
had no ships and no time to make any, while they had 500, he feared lest
they should bring famine upon Italy by patrolling the coast. While
meditating on those things, and while he had the choice of many virgins in
marriage, he wrote to Maecenas to make an engagement for him with
Scribonia,
Then he summoned Lucius to his presence and praised him for his attachment to
his brother, because he had taken the blame upon himself while carrying out
Antony’s wishes, but reproached him with ingratitude if, after meeting such
a favor from himself, he should now refuse to confess concerning the aims of
Antony, who was said to have formed an alliance openly with Pompeius.
Having confidence in you,
he said, when Calenus died I took charge of his
provinces and army through my friends for Antony, so that they might not be
without a head, but now that the plot is unveiled I shall keep them all for
myself, and if you wish to go to your brother I will allow you to do so
fearlessly.
He spoke thus, either to test Lucius or in order that what he
said might reach Antony. Lucius replied in the same spirit as before,
saying, I knew that Fulvia was in favor of the monarchy, but I joined with
her and made use of my brother’s soldiers to overthrow all of you. And now
if my brother should come to dissolve the monarchy I would go to join him,
either openly or secretly, and would fight you again in behalf of the
country, although you have been a benefactor to me. If he seeks allies to
assist him in maintaining the tyranny, I will fight on your side against him
as long as I think that you are not trying to establish a monarchy. I shall
always set my country above gratitude and above family.
So spake Lucius.
Octavius, holding him in the same admiration as recently [at Perusia], said
that he did not wish to incite him against his brother, but that he would
intrust to Lucius, because he was what he was, the whole of Spain, and the
army in it, which were now under the command of his lieutenants,
Peducaeus and Lucius.
Antony left Fulvia ill at Sicyon, and set sail from Corcyra into the
AdriaticAt the time of the battle of
Philippi,
and this is necessary unless we expunge a considerable part
of Book IV., which narrates the movements of Murcus and Ahenobarbus with
their fleet. Section 115 says that they fought a naval battle in the
Adriatic against Domitius Calvinus on the very day of the first battle
at Philippi.
From thence they sailed to Brundusium, which was garrisoned by five cohorts
of Octavius’ troops. The citizens closed their gates against Ahenobarbus, as
an old enemy, and against Antony, as one introducing an enemy. Antony was
indignant. Considering this a pretence, and that he was in fact shut out by
Octavius’ garrison at the latter’s instance, he drew a ditch and palisade
across the isthmus that connects the town with the mainland. The city is
situated on a peninsula which fronts a crescent-shaped harbor. Now the
people coming from the mainland could no longer reach the rising ground on
which the city stands, as it had been cut off and walled in. Antony also
surrounded the harbor, which is large, and the islands in it, with towers
planted closely together. He sent forces along the coasts of Italy, whom he
ordered to seize the advantageous positions. He called upon Pompeius to move
against Italy with his fleet and to do whatever he could. Pompeius, with
alacrity, despatched Menodorus with a numerous fleet and four legions of
soldiers, who seized Sardinia, which belonged to Octavius, and two legions
in it, who were panic-stricken at this agreement between Pompeius and
Antony. In Italy Antony’s men captured the town of Sipuntum of Ausonia.
Octavius, attacked so suddenly and in so many places, sent Agrippa into Ausonia to succor the distressed inhabitants. Agrippa called out the colonized veterans along the road, and they followed at a certain interval, supposing that they were moving against Pompeius, but when they learned that what had happened had been done at Antony’s instance, they turned around and went back secretly. Octavius was greatly alarmed by this. Nevertheless, while marching to Brundusium with another army he again fell in with the colonized veterans, and interceded with them, and prevailed upon those who had been colonized by himself to follow him. They were ashamed to refuse, but they had the secret intention to bring Antony and Octavius into harmony with each other, and if Antony should refuse and should go to war, then to defend Octavius. The latter was detained some days at Canusium by sickness. Although his forces considerably outnumbered those of Antony, he found Brundusium walled in, and he could do nothing but encamp alongside of it and await events.
Antony was enabled by means of his intrenchments to defend himself easily, although he was much inferior in numbers. He summoned his army from Macedonia in haste, and in the meantime he resorted to the stratagem of sending war-ships and merchant vessels to sea by night secretly with a multitude of private citizens on board, which returned, one after another, the next day, in sight of Octavius, bearing armed men, as though they had just come from Macedonia. Antony had his machines already prepared and was about to attack the Brundusians, to the great chagrin of Octavius, since he was not able to defend them. Toward evening the news reached both armies that Agrippa had captured Sipuntum and that Pompeius had been repulsed from Thurii, but was still besieging Consentia. Antony was disturbed by this news. When it was announced that Servilius was coming to the assistance of Octavius with 1500 horse, Antony could not restrain his rage, but sprang up from supper, and, with such friends as he could find ready and with 400 horse, he pressed forward with the utmost intrepidity, and fell upon the 1500, who were still asleep near the town of Uria, threw them into a panic, captured them without a fight, and returned to Brundusium the same day. Thus did the reputation that Antony had gained at Philippi as an invincible man still inspire terror.
Antony’s praetorian cohorts, proud of his prestige, approached the camp of Octavius in groups and reproached their former comrades for coming hither to fight Antony, to whom they all owed their safety at Philippi. When the latter replied that the others had come making war against themselves, they fell to arguing and brought charges against each other. Antony’s men said that Brundusium had been closed against him and that Calenus’ troops had been taken from him. The others spoke of the investment and siege of Brundusium, the invasion of Southern Italy, the agreement with Ahenobarbus, one of Caesar’s murderers, and the treaty with Pompeius, their common enemy. Finally Octavius’ men revealed their purpose to the others, saying that they had come with Octavius, not because they were forgetful of Antony’s merits, but with the intention of bringing them to an agreement, or, if Antony refused and continued the war, of defending Octavius against him. These things they openly said also when they approached Antony’s works. While these events were in progress the news came that Fulvia was dead. It was said that she was dispirited by Antony’s reproaches and fell sick; and it was thought that she had become a willing victim of disease on account of the anger of Antony, who had left her while she was sick and had not visited her even when he was going away. The death of this turbulent woman, who had stirred up so disastrous a war on account of her jealousy of Cleopatra, seemed extremely fortunate to both of the parties who were rid of her. Nevertheless, Antony was much saddened by this event because he considered himself in some sense the cause of it.
There was a certain Lucius Cocceius, a friend of both, who had been sent, in
company with Caecina, by Octavius, the previous summer, to Antony
in Phœnicia, and had remained with Antony after Caecina
returned. This Cocceius, seizing his opportunity, pretended that he had been
sent for by Octavius for the purpose of a friendly greeting. When Antony
allowed him to go he asked, by way of testing his disposition, whether
Antony would like to write any letter to Octavius which he could convey.
Antony replied: What can we write to each other, now that we are enemies,
except mutual recrimination? I wrote letters in reply to his of some time
ago, which I sent by the hand of Caecina. Take copies of those if
you like.
This he said by way of jest, but Cocceius would not yet allow him
to call Octavius an enemy after his generous behavior toward Lucius and
Antony’s other friends. But Antony replied: He has shut me out of
Brundusium and taken my provinces and the army of Calenus from me. He is
kind only to my friends, and evidently not to keep them friendly, but to
make them enemies to me by his benefactions.
Cocceius, after hearing these
complaints, did not care to irritate further a naturally passionate
disposition, but proceeded to make his visit to Octavius.
When Octavius saw him he expressed astonishment that he had not come sooner.
I did not save your brother,
he exclaimed, in order that you should be my
enemy.
your brother
to refer to
Lucius Antonius as though Octavius were addressing Cocceius as Antony’s
legate. Mendelssohn shows by a reference to Borghesi that the person
referred to was M. Cocceius Nerva, Antony’s proquaestor.How is it that you, who make friends out of enemies, call
your friends enemies and take from them their armies and provinces?
It was
not fitting,
replied Octavius, that after the death of Calenus such large
resources should be left in the hands of such a stripling as Calenus’ son
while Antony was still far distant. Lucius was excited to frenzy by them and
Asinius and Ahenobarbus, who were near by, were about to use them against
us. So, too, I took sudden possession of the legions of Plancus, in order
that they might not join the Pompeians. His cavalry have actually gone to
Sicily.
These matters have been told differently,
said Cocceius; but
Antony did not credit the statements made to him until he was shut out of
Brundusium as an enemy.
I gave no order on that subject,
replied
Octavius, nor did I know beforehand that he was coming, nor did I
anticipate that he would come here with enemies. The Brundusians themselves
and the praefect, who had been left with them on account of the
raids of Ahenobarbus, of their own motion excluded Antony, who was in league
with the common enemy, Pompeius, and was bringing in Ahenobarbus, one of my
father’s murderers, who has been condemned by vote of the Senate, by
judgment of the court, and by the proscription, who besieged Brundusium
after the battle of Philippi, and is still blockading the Adriatic coast,
who has burned my ships and plundered Italy.
But it was agreed between you,
said Cocceius, that you might treat with
whomsoever you chose. Yet Antony has not made a treaty with any of the
murderers, and he holds your father in no less honor than you do.
Ahenobarbus was not one of the murderers. The vote was cast against him on
account of personal animosity, for he had no share whatever in the plots of
those days.
Octavius repeated his accusations,
saying, for he was not then a
member of the Senate.
It all depends upon the interpretation of
Manius and Fulvia and Lucius brought war against Italy, and
against me as well as Italy; and Pompeius, who did not attack before, now
makes descents upon the coast, encouraged by Antony.
Cocceius replied, Not
encouraged by Antony, but directed by him; for I will not conceal from you
the fact that the rest of Italy, which is destitute of naval defences, will
be attacked by a powerful fleet unless you agree to peace.
Octavius, who
gave due weight to this artful suggestion, reflected a moment, and then
said, But Pompeius will have the worst of it. He has just been repulsed
from Thurii as he deserves.
Then Cocceius, having gone over the whole
controversy, led the conversation up to the death of Fulvia and the manner
of it, saying that she fell sick because she could not bear the anger of
Antony and wasted away with grief because he would not see her when she was
ill, and that he was in a manner the cause of his wife’s death. Now that
she is dead,
he continued, it only remains for you to tell each other
frankly what your suspicions are.
In this way Cocceius won the confidence of Octavius and passed the day as his
guest, and begged him to write to Antony as the younger man to the older.
Octavius said that he would not write to one who was still waging war
against him, because Antony had not written to him, but that he would make
complaint to Antony’s mother, because, although a relative and held in the
highest honor by Octavius,
by writing to Julia. As Cocceius was going away from the camp many of the
higher officers advised him of the purpose of the army, and he communicated
this and other things he had learned to Antony, so that he might know that
they would fight against him because he did not come to an agreement. So he
advised Antony that Pompeius should be called back from his ravaging to
Sicily, and that Ahenobarbus should be sent somewhither until a treaty of
peace should be made. Antony’s mother besought him to the same purpose, for
she belonged to the Julian
When Octavius’ soldiers learned these facts they chose deputies and sent the same ones to both commanders. They took no notice of accusations because they had been chosen, not to decide a controve sy, but to restore peace. Cocceius was added to their number as she common friend of both, together with Pollio from Antony’s party and Maecenas from that of Octavius. It was determined that there should be amnesty between Antony and Octavius for the past and friendship for the future. Moreover, as Marcellus, the husband of Octavius’ sister Octavia, had recently died, the umpires decided that her brother should betroth her to Antony, which he did immediately. Then Antony and Octavius embraced each other. Thereupon shouts went up from the soldiers and congratulations were offered to each of the generals, without intermission, through the entire day and night.
Now Octavius and Antony made a fresh partition of the whole Roman empire
between themselves, the boundary line being Scodra, a city of Illyria which
was supposed to be situated about midway up the Adriatic gulf.while serving in the army with Brutus
and Cassius was sent to Orodes, the king of the Parthians, before the
battle of Philippi, to solicit aid. He was treated disdainfully and kept
waiting a long time by this prince, who hesitated to comply, yet feared
to refuse. When the news came that Brutus and Cassius were defeated and
that the victors were not likely to spare any of their antagonists, he
remained with the barbarians, preferring life with them to death at
home. This Labienus, when he heard of Antony’s indolence, of his passion
for Cleopatra, and his departure for Egypt, persuaded the Parthians to
attack the Romans.
They were soon afterward crushed by
Ventidius.
In the meantime Helenus, a lieutenant of Octavius, who had repossessed Sardinia by a sudden onset, was driven out again by Menodorus, the lieutenant of Pompeius. Octavius was so exasperated by this that he rejected Antony’s endeavors to bring him to an agreement with Pompeius. They proceeded to Rome together and celebrated the marriage. Antony put Manius to death because he had excited Fulvia by his accusations against Cleopatra and had been the cause of so many evils. He also revealed to Octavius the fact that Salvidienus, who was in command of Octavius’ army on the Rhone, had had the intention of deserting him, and had sent word to that effect to Antony while he was besieging Brundusium. This secret Antony revealed, not with universal approbation, but because of his frankness and eagerness to show his good-will. Octavius instantly summoned Salvidienus to Rome, pretending that he had some private communication to make to him, and that he should send him back to the army. When he came Octavius confronted him with proofs of his treachery and put him to death, and gave his army to Antony, as he considered it untrustworthy.
Now famine fell upon Rome, since the merchants of the Orient could not put to sea for fear of Pompeius, who controlled Sicily, and those of the west were deterred by Sardinia and Corsica, which the lieutenants of Pompeius held, while those of Africa opposite were prevented by the same hostile fleets, which infested both shores. There was great dearness of provisions, and the people considered the cause of it to be the strife between the chiefs, and cried out against them and urged them to make peace with Pompeius. As Octavius would by no means yield, Antony advised him to hasten the war on account of the scarcity. As there was no money for this purpose, an edict was published that the owners of slaves should pay a tax for each one, equal to one-half of the twenty-five drachmas that had been ordained for the war against Brutus and Cassius, and that those who acquired property by legacies should contribute a share thereof. The people tore down the edict with fury. They were exasperated that, after exhausting the public treasury, stripping the provinces, burdening Italy itself with contributions, taxes, and confiscations, not for foreign war, not for extending the empire, but for private enmities and to add to their own power (for which reason the proscriptions and this terrible famine had come about), the triumvirs should deprive them of the remainder of their property. They banded together, with loud cries, and stoned those who did not join them, and threatened to plunder and burn their houses, until the whole populace was aroused.
Octavius with his friends and a few attendants came into the forum intending
to intercede with the people and to show the unreasonableness of their
complaints. As soon as he made his appearance they stoned him unmercifully,
and they were not ashamed when they saw him enduring this treatment
patiently, and offering himself to it, and even bleeding from wounds. When
Antony learned what was going on he came with haste to his assistance. When
the people saw him coming down the Via Sacra they did not throw stones at
him, since he was in favor of a treaty with Pompeius, but they told him to
go away. When he refused to do so they stoned him also. He called in a
larger force of troops, who were outside the walls. As the people would not
allow him to pass through, the soldiers divided right and left on either
side of the street and the forum, and made their attack from the narrow
lane, striking down those whom they met. The people could no longer find
ready escape on account of the crowd, nor was there any way out of the
forum. There was a scene of slaughter and wounds, while shrieks and groans
sounded from the housetops. Antony made his way into the forum with
difficulty, and snatched Octavius from the most manifest danger, in which he
then was, and brought him safe to his house.
Antony suggested to the relatives of Libo that they
All the friends of Pompeius urged him with one accord to make peace, except Menodorus, who wrote to him from Sardinia either to prosecute the war vigorously or still to procrastinate, because famine was fighting for them, and he would thus get better terms if he should decide to make peace. Menodorus also advised him to distrust Murcus, who opposed these views, intimating that he was seeking power for himself. Pompeius, who had been vexed with Murcus lately on account of his high position and his stubbornness, became still more averse to him for this reason, and held no communication with him whatever, until, finally, Murcus retired in disgust to Syracuse. Here he saw some of Pompeius’ guards following him, and he expressed his opinion of Pompeius to them freely. Then Pompeius bribed a tribune and a centurion of Murcus, and induced them to kill him and to say that he had been murdered by slaves. To give credibility to this falsehood he crucified the slaves. But he did not succeed in concealing this crime, — the next one committed by him after the murder of Bithynicus, — Murcus having been a man distinguished for his warlike deeds, who had been strongly attached to that party from the beginning, and had rendered great assistance to Pompeius in Spain, and had joined him in Sicily voluntarily. Such was the death of Murcus.
His other friends urged Pompeius to make peace, and they accused Menodorus of
fondness of power and as opposing peace not so much from good-will to his
master
Finally, at the instance of his mother, Mucia, and of his wife, Julia, again the three men (Octavius, Antony, and Pompeius) came together on the mole of Puteoli, washed by the waves on both sides, and with ships moored around it as guards. Here they came to an agreement on the following terms: That the war should cease on both land and sea, and that commerce should be everywhere unmolested; that Pompeius should remove his garrisons from Italy and no longer afford a refuge to fugitive slaves; that he should not assail with his fleet the Italian coast, but should govern Sardinia, Sicily, and Corsica, and any other islands then in his possession, as long as Antony and Octavius should hold sway over the other countries; that he should send to Rome the corn that had been previously required as tribute from those islands, and that he might have Peloponnesus in addition; that he might hold the consulship in his absence through any friend he might choose, and be inscribed as a member of the priesthood of the first rank. Such were the conditions accorded to Pompeius himself. Members of the nobility who were still in exile were allowed to return, except those who had been condemned by vote of the Senate and judgment of court for participation in the murder of Gaius Caesar. The property of those who had fled merely from fear, and whose goods had been seized by violence, should all be restored except movables. Proscripts should receive one fourth part of theirs. Slaves who had served in the army of Pompeius should be free, and free persons who had thus served should, upon their discharge, receive the same rewards as those who had served under Octavius and Antony.
Such were the terms of the treaty, to which they attached their names and
seals and sent it to Rome to be placed in the custody of the Vestal virgins.
Then they entertained each other, casting lots to determine the order of the
ceremony. The first banquet took place on Pompeius’ six-banked ship, moored
alongside the mole. On succeeding days Antony and Octavius gave banquets in
tents pitched on the mole, on the pretext that thus all might participate,
but perhaps really for their better security and to quiet apprehensions; for
they did not even then neglect precautions. Their ships were moored
alongside and guards were stationed around them, and the banqueters were
girded with concealed daggers. It is said that, while the three were
feasting in the ship, Menodorus sent a message to Pompeius advising him to
entrap these men and avenge the wrongs of his father and his brother, and to
avail himself of this most favorable occasion to resume the sway that his
father had exercised, saying that he, with his own ships, would take care
that nobody should escape; but that Pompeius replied, in a manner worthy of
his family and his position, Would that Menodorus had done this without my
knowledge. False swearing may become Menodorus, but not Pompeius.
while the banquet was at its
height, and they were cracking jokes about Cleopatra and Antony, Menas
the pirate approached Pompeius, and whispered to him so that the others
could not hear:
(Do you wish me to cut loose from the ship’s anchors and
make you master, not of Sicily and Sardinia only, but of the whole Roman
empire?
Pompeius, after hearing him, waited a brief space, and said:
O Menas, you might have done so without telling me beforehand! Now we
must be satisfied with present conditions, for I cannot break my oath.
Having finished this business they separated, Pompeius
going to Sicily by sea, Octavius and Antony to Rome by land. When the Romans and Italians learned the news 3 there was universal rejoicing at the return of peace and at their deliverance from intestine war, from the conscription of their sons, from the arrogance of guards, from the running away of slaves, from the pillage of fields, from the ruin of agriculture, and, above all, from the famine that had pressed upon them with the greatest severity. As the triumvirs were proceeding on their journey sacrifices were offered in their honor as to saviours. The city would have given them a magnificent reception, had they not entered secretly by night in order to avoid jealousies. The only ones disappointed were those to whom had been allotted lands belonging to men who were to be restored with Pompeius. They thought that they should have irreconcilable enemies dwelling alongside of them as landlords, who would do them injury whenever they could. The exiles who were with Pompeius, all but a few, took leave of him at Puteoli and set sail for Rome. Their coming was to the people a new source of joy and acclamations, so great a number of illustrious men having been unexpectedly saved from death.
After these events Octavius set forth on an expedition to Gaul, which was in a disturbed state, and Antony started for the war against the Parthians. The Senate having voted to ratify all that he had done or should do, Antony again despatched his lieutenants in all directions and arranged everything else as he wished. He set up kings here and there as he pleased, on condition of their paying a prescribed tribute: in Pontus, Darius, the son of Pharnaces and grandson of Mithridates; in Idumea and Samaria, Herod; in Pisidia, Amyntas; in a part of Cilicia, Polemon, and others in other countries. Desiring to enrich as well as to exercise the soldiers, who were to go with him into winter quarters, he sent some of them against the Partheni, an Illyrian tribe near Epidamnus, who had been very much attached to Brutus; others against the Dardani, another Illyrian tribe, who were forever making.incursions into Macedonia. Others he ordered to remain in Epirus, in order to have them all within reach, as he intended to pass the winter himself in Athens. He sent Furnius to Africa to bring four legions, that were under the command of Sestius, for service against the Parthians. He did not know as yet that Lepidus had deprived Sestius of the command of these troops.
Having made these dispositions, he spent the winter at Athens with Octavia
just as he had spent the previous one at Alexandria with Cleopatra, merely
looking over the reports sent from the army, exchanging the display of a
commander for the simplicity of private life, wearing the square-cut pallium
and the Attic shoe, and without formal company. He went out, in like manner,
without the insignia of office, accompanied by two friends and two
attendants, to the discussions and lectures of the public teachers. He took
his meals in the Greek fashion, passed his leisure time with Greeks, and
enjoyed their festivals in company with Octavia, with whom he was very much
in love, being
While Antony was thus occupied the treaty existing beween Octavius and Pompeius was broken for other reasons, as was suspected, than those avowed by Octavius, which were the following: Antony had ceded Peloponnesus to Pompeius on condition that the tribute then due from the Peloponnesians should either be given over at once, or that it should be guaranteed by Pompeius to Antony, or that the former should wait till the collection had been made. Pompeius had not accepted it on these conditions. He thought that it had been given to him with the amount of tribute then due. Vexed, as Octavius said, whether at this state of things, or from his general faithlessness, or his jealousy because the others had large armies, or because Menodorus had prompted him to consider the agreement as a truce rather than a lasting peace, he began to build ships, and recruit crews, and once harangued his soldiers, telling them they must be prepared for everything. Private robbery again infested the sea, and there was little or no relief from the famine among the Romans, who cried out that the treaty had brought no deliverance from their sufferings, but only a fourth partner to the tyranny. Octavius having caught certain pirates and put them to torture, they said that Pompeius had sent them out, and Octavius proclaimed this to the people and wrote it to Pompeius himself, who disavowed it and made a counter complaint respecting the Peloponnesus.
Those of the nobility who were still with Pompeius, seeing him always under
the influence of his freedmen, bribed some of them, either for their own
purposes or to gratify Octavius, to incite their master against Menodorus,
who was still governing Corsica and Sardinia.
Antony came at the appointed day with a small escort, but not finding Octavius there he did not wait, either because he did not approve of the war, considering it a violation of the treaty, or because he observed Octavius’ great preparations (for the desire to be the sole ruler did not permit their fears to slumber at any time), or because he was alarmed by a prodigy. It was found that one of the guards who slept around his tent had been devoured by wild beasts except his face only, as though this had been left for the purpose of recognition, and that he had uttered no cry, nor did any of those who were asleep with him know of it. The Brundusians said that a wolf had been seen just before daybreak running away from the tents. Nevertheless Antony wrote to Octavius not to violate the treaty, and he threatened Menodorus with punishment as his own fugitive slave; for the latter had been the slave of Pompey the Great, whose property Antony had bought when it was sold under the law of war.
Octavius sent officers to receive Sardinia and Corsica, which Menodorus turned over to them. He strengthened the Italian coast with numerous towers to prevent Pompeius from raiding it again. He ordered the building of new triremes at Rome and Ravenna, and he sent for a large army from Illyria. When Menodorus came he made the latter a free citizen instead of a freedman, and put him in command, under the admiral Calvisius, of the ships which he had brought with him. When he had finished these preparations and brought together a still larger amount of war material he yet delayed, and he reproached Antony for not waiting. He ordered Cornificius to bring with him to Tarentum everything that was now in readiness. While Cornificius was making the voyage a storm overtook him which destroyed only the admiral’s ship, which had been built for Octavius himself. This was considered an omen of what was to take place. As the belief still prevailed that this war was a violation of the treaty, Octavius sought to dispel the suspicion. He wrote to the city and he told his soldiers that Pompeius had violated the treaty by encouraging piracy, that the pirates had confessed this, that Menodorus had revealed the whole design, and that Antony knew it, and for that reason had refused to give up the Peloponnesus.
When all things were in readiness he set sail for Sicily, going himself from Tarentum, while Calvisius, with Sabinus and Menodorus, sailed from Etruria. The infantry was sent on the march to Rhegium and great haste was displayed in all quarters. Pompeius had scarcely heard of the desertion of Menodorus when Octavius was already moving against him. While the hostile fleets were advancing from both sides, he awaited the attack of Octavius at Messana, and ordered his freedman Menecrates, who was the bitterest enemy of Menodorus, to advance against Calvisius and Menodorus with a large fleet. Menecrates was observed by his enemies near nightfall on the open sea. They retired into the bay near Cumae, where they passed the night, Menecrates proceeding to Aenaria. At daybreak they drew up their fleet, in the form of a crescent, as close to the shore as possible, in order to prevent the enemy from breaking through it. Menecrates again showed himself, and immediately came on with a rush. As his enemies would not advance to the open sea, and he could do nothing of importance there, he made a charge in order to drive them upon the land. They beached their ships and fought back against the attacking prows. Menecrates had the opportunity to draw off and renew the attack as he pleased, and to bring up fresh ships by turns, while the enemy were distressed by the rocks, on which they had grounded, and by the inability to move. They were like infantry contending against sea forces, unable either to pursue or retreat.
In this situation Menodorus and Menecrates came in sight of each other; and, abandoning the rest of the fight, drove against each other with fury and shouting, as though they had staked the issue of the battle on this encounter, whichever should be the victor. Their ships came into violent collision and were badly damaged, Menodorus losing his prow and Menecrates his oar-blades. Grapplingirons were thrown by both, and the ships, being fastened together, could no longer manœuvre, but the men, as in a battle on land, failed not in deeds of valor. Showers of javelins, stones, and arrows were discharged, and bridges for boarding were thrown from one ship to the other. As the ship of Menodorus was higher than the other his bridges made a better passageway for his daring crew, and his missiles were more effective for the same reason. Many men were already slain, and the remainder wounded, when Menodorus was pierced in the arm with a dart, which was, however, drawn out. Menecrates was struck in the thigh with a Spanish javelin, made wholly of iron with numerous barbs, which could not be readily extracted. Although Menecrates could no longer take part in the fight, he remained there all the same, encouraging the others, until his ship was captured, when he plunged into the depths of the sea. Menodorus towed the captured ship to the land, but was able to do nothing more himself.
This took place on the left wing of the naval fight. Calvisius directed his
course from the right to the left and cut off some of Menecrates’ ships from
the main body, and when they fled pursued them to the open sea. Demochares,
who was a fellow-freedman of Menecrates and his lieutenant, fell upon the
remainder of Calvisius’ ships, put some of them to flight, broke others in
pieces on the rocks, and set fire to them after the crews had abandoned
them. Finally Calvisius, returning from the pursuit, led back his own
fleeing ships and prevented the burning of any more. As night was
approaching, all returned to their former station. Such was the end of this
naval fight, in which the forces of Pompeius had much the best of it; but
Demochares, grieving over the death of Menecrates as the greatest possible
defeat (for those two, Menecrates and Menodorus, had been the foremost of
Pompeius’ sea captains), abandoned everythingreleased his hold
in English.
Calvisius, as long as he expected that Demochares would renew his attack, remained at his station, unable to fight in the open sea, for his best ships had been destroyed and the others were unfit for battle. When he learned that his antagonist had gone to Sicily, he repaired his ships and coasted along the shore exploring the bays. Octavius, in the meantime, proceeded from Tarentum to Rhegium, with a large fleet and army, and near Messana came up with Pompeius, who had forty ships only. Octavius’ friends advised him to improve this most favorable opportunity and attack Pompeius with his great fleet, while the latter had so few ships and before the rest of his naval force should arrive. He did not follow this advice, but waited for Calvisius, saying that it was not good policy to run a risk when he was expecting reinforcements. When Demochares arrived at Messana, Pompeius appointed him and Apollophanes, another of his freedmen, admirals in place of Menodorus and Menecrates.
When Octavius heard of his disaster at Cumae he sailed out of the
straits to meet Calvisius. After accomplishing the greater part of the
distance and while he was passing Stylis
Octavius leaped from his ship upon the rocks and pulled out of the water those who swam ashore, and conducted them to the mountain above. However, Cornificius and the other generals who were there, encouraged each other, cut loose from their anchors without awaiting orders, and put to sea against the enemy, thinking that it was better to be conquered fighting than to fall unresisting before the blows of their assailants. First, with wonderful audacity, Cornificius rammed the flag-ship of Demochares and captured it. The latter leaped upon another vessel. Then, while the struggle and carnage were in progress, Calvisius and Menodorus hove in sight, advancing from the open sea, although they had not been observed by Octavius’ men either from the land or the water. The Pompeians, being farther out at sea, beheld them first, and, when they saw them, retreated, for darkness was approaching, and, fatigued as they were, they dared not encounter fresh men. This conjuncture happened very opportunely for those who had just now been in difficulties.
At nightfall, those who had reached the shore from the ships took refuge on the mountains and lighted numerous fires as signals to those who were still on the sea, and there passed the night without food, uncared for, and in want of everything. Octavius fared like the rest, and moved around exhorting them to endure their privations till morning. While he was undergoing these hardships it was not known that Calvisius had arrived, nor could anything thing needful be obtained from the ships in their wrecked condition. But good luck came to them from another quarter. The thirteenth legion was approaching by way of the mountains, and, learning of the disaster and judging of the road by the fire, they made their way through the crags. They found their commander, and those who had taken refuge with him, suffering from fatigue and want of food, and ministered to them, dividing the work, some caring for some, others for others. The centurions brought their commander into an improvised tent, as none of his body-servants were present, these having been dispersed in the darkness and disorder. He sent messengers in all directions forthwith, to announce that he was safe, and he learned that Calvisius had arrived with the vanguard of his fleet; and, in view of these two helpful and unexpected events, he allowed himself some rest.
The next morning, when Octavius looked out upon the water, he beheld some of
his ships burned, others partly burned, others still burning, and others
broken in pieces; and the sea filled with sails, rudders, and furniture,
while, of the ships that were saved, the greater part were damaged. Having
ranged the fleet of Calvisius in front, he made repairs on those of his
vessels that most needed them, turning them on their sides,He repaired those
which especially required attention, sailing in the meantime near the
shore on an oblique course.
Yet in a note on this passage he inclines
to the opinion that
Menodorus, apprehending that this rising storm would increase in violence,
moved farther seaward and rode at anchor where, on account of the depth of
water, the waves were less boisterous; and even here he had recourse to hard
rowing to avoid being driven ashore. Some of the others followed his
example, but most of them, thinking that the wind would soon subside, as it
usually did in the springtime, moored themselves with anchors on either
side, landward and seaward, and thrust out poles to prevent collisions with
each other. As the wind grew more violent everything was thrown into
confusion. The ships collided, broke their anchors, and were upset on the
shore one after another. Cries of alarm and groans of pain were mingled
together, and exhortations that fell upon deaf ears. Orders could not be
heard. There was no distinction between pilot and common sailor. Knowledge
and authority were alike unavailing. The same destruction awaited those in
the ships and those who fell overboard, the latter being crushed by wind,
waves, and floating timber. The sea was full of sails, spars, and men,
living and dead. Those who sought to escape by swimming to land were dashed
against the rocks by the surf. When the convulsion seized the water,
Groans were heard throughout the entire night, and the cries of men running along the shore and calling their friends and relatives upon the sea by name, and mourning for them as lost when they could hear no responses; and anon the cries of others lifting their heads above the waves and beseeching aid from those on shore. Nothing could be done on either land or water. Not only was the sea inexorable to those engulfed in it, as well as to those still in the ships, but the danger from the storm was almost as great on land, lest the surf should dash them against the rocks. So distressed were they by this unexampled tempest that those who were nearest the land feared the land, yet could not get sufficient offing to avoid collision with each other, for the narrowness of the place and its naturally difficult outlet, together with the force of the waves, the rotary motion of the wind, caused by the surrounding mountains, and the whirlpool of the deep, holding everything in its grasp, allowed neither tarrying nor escape. The darkness of a very black night added to their distress. And so they perished, no longer even seeing each other, some uttering confused cries, others yielding in silence, accepting their doom, some even hastening it, believing that they were utterly lost. The disaster so far surpassed their experience that it bereft them of the hope of saving themselves even by chance. Finally, at the approach of daylight, the wind suddenly relaxed its force, and after sunrise wholly died away; yet even then, although the storm had ceased, the surges rolled a long time. The fury of the tempest surpassed the memory of the oldest inhabitants. It was altogether unexampled, and the greater part of Octavius’ ships and men were destroyed by it.
Octavius, who had lost heavily in the battle the previous day and had sustained two severe calamities together, took the road in haste to Vibo that same night, by way of the mountains, being unable to repair this disaster, for which there was no help at hand. He wrote to all his friends and generals to be on the alert lest a plot should be formed against him here or there, as is liable to be the case when adversity comes. He despatched the infantry he had with him to all points on the Italian coast, lest Pompeius should be emboldened by his good luck even to invade the mainland. But the latter had no thought of an expedition by land. He did not even attack the ships that were left from the wreck, nor those that went away after the storm had subsided. On the contrary, he paid no attention to the enemy while they were tying their ships together with ropes as well as they could, and sailing with a favorable wind to Vibo. He neglected them either because he thought that the disaster was all-sufficient for him, or because he did not know how to follow up a victory, or, as I have said elsewhere, because he was altogether inefficient in attack and cared only to defend himself against assailants.
Less than half of Octavius’ ships were saved, and these badly damaged. He
left certain officers in charge of them and proceeded to Campania much cast
down, for he had no other ships and he needed many; nor did he have time to
build them, pressed as he was by the famine and by the people, who were
again harassing him about a new treaty and mocking at the war as being in
violation of the old one. He needed money, but had none. The Romans were not
paying the taxes, nor would they allow the use of the revenues that he had
devised. But he was always clever at discovering what was for his advantage.
He sent
At the beginning of spring, Antony set sail from Athens to Tarentum with 300
ships to assist Octavius as he had promised. But the latter had changed his
mind and postponed his movement until his own ships should be finished. When
called upon again and told that Antony’s forces were ready and sufficient,
he advanced other reasons for delay. It was evident that he was again
offended with Antony about something, or that he disdained his assistance
because his own resources were abundant. Antony was vexed, but he remained,
nevertheless, and communicated
They both chanced to reach the river at the same time. Antony sprang down from his chariot and leaped alone into one of the skiffs moored near by, and rowed toward Octavius, showing confidence in him as a friend. When Octavius saw this he followed the example. So they met in the stream and contended with each other which of them should disembark on the other’s bank. Octavius prevailed because he was going to make a visit to Octavia at Tarentum. He took a seat with Antony in the latter’s chariot, and proceeded to his lodgings at Tarentum unprotected, and passed the night there without guards. On the following day Antony made the same exhibition of trust. Thus they were continually changing from suspicion born of rivalry to confidence due to their mutual needs.
However, Octavius postponed his expedition against
But Menodorus, — either because he was an habitual traitor, or because he feared the former threat of Antony, who had said that he would punish him as a rebellious slave, or because he had received less consideration than he had expected, or because the other freedmen of Pompeius were continually reproaching him for unfaithfulness to his master and urging him to return, — now that Menecrates was dead, asked forgiveness, and, having obtained it, deserted to Pompeius with seven ships, without the knowledge of Octavius’ admiral, Calvisius. For this reason Octavius dismissed the latter from his command and appointed Agrippa in his place. When the fleet was ready, Octavius performed a lustration for it in the following manner. Altars were erected on the margin of the sea, and the multitude were ranged around them in ships, observing the most profound silence. The priests who performed the ceremony offered the sacrifice while standing at the water’s edge, and carried the expiatory offerings in skiffs three times around the fleet, the general sailing with them, beseeching the gods to turn the bad omens against the victims instead of the fleet. Then, dividing the entrails, they cast a part of them into the sea, and put the remainder on the altars and burned them, while the multitude chanted in unison. In this way the Romans perform lustrations of the fleet.
It was intended that Octavius should set sail from Puteoli, Lepidus from Africa, and Taurus from Tarentum, to Sicily, in order to surround the enemy at once, from the east, the west, and the south. The day of Octavius’ sailing had been previously communicated to all. It was the tenth day after the summer solstice. This, in the Roman calendar, was the calends of the month which, in honor of the first Caesar, they call July instead of Quintilis. Octavius fixed on this day, perhaps because he considered it propitious on account of his father, who was always victorious. Pompeius stationed Plennius at Lilybaeum with one legion and a considerable body of light-armed troops, to oppose Lepidus. He guarded the whole coast of Sicily, both east and west, and especially the islands of Lipara and Cossyra, lest they should become convenient harbors and naval stations for Octavius and Lepidus against Sicily. The best part of his naval force he kept together at Messana watching its chances. In this way they made their preparations on either side.
When the calends came they all set sail at daybreak, Lepidus from Africa with 1000 ships of burden, seventy war vessels, twelve legions of soldiers, 500 Numidian horse, and a great quantity of apparatus; Taurus from Tarentum with only 102 of the 130 ships that Antony had left, since the oarsmen of the remainder had perished during the winter. Octavius sailed from Puteoli, offering sacrifices and pouring out libations from the admiral’s ship into the water to the propitious winds, and to Neptune, the guardian, and to the tranquil sea, that they should be his assistants against his father’s enemies. Certain ships sent in advance made examination of the bays, and Appius with a large squadron followed as a rear guard. On the third day after their departure a south wind blew with violence and capsized a large number of ships of burden belonging to Lepidus. Nevertheless, he reached the Sicilian coast, laid siege to Plennius in Lilybaeum, and got possession of some towns by persuasion and others by force. When the wind began to blow Taurus returned to Tarentum. While Appius was doubling the promontory of Minerva, some of his ships were shattered against the rocks, others ran with violence on the shoals, and the rest were dispersed, not without injury. At the beginning of the storm, Octavius took refuge in the sheltered bay of Elea, except one six-banked ship, which was wrecked on the promontory. The south wind was succeeded by a southwester, which threw the bay into commotion, as it opened toward the west. It was impossible to sail out of the bay with the wind still ahead, nor could the ships be held by oars or anchors. They crashed against each other or against the rocks, and the confusion became worse confounded by night.
When the tempest had subsided, Octavius buried the dead, cared for the wounded, clothed those who had swum ashore and furnished them with new weapons, and repaired his whole fleet with the means at his command. Six of his heavy ships, twenty-six lighter ones, and a still larger number of liburnicas had been destroyed. He was likely to consume nearly thirty days in these repairs; and now the end of summer was approaching, for which reason he deemed it best to postpone the war till the following summer, but as the people were suffering from scarcity he drew his ships upon the land and made his preparations rapidly, and sent the crews of the ships that he had lost to fill the empty ones in the fleet of Taurus. In anticipation of more serious misfortune he sent Maecenas to Rome on account of those who were still under the spell of the memory of Pompey the Great, for the fame of that man had not yet lost its influence over them. Octavius himself visited the new colonies throughout Italy and dispelled their fears, which had been excited by the recent events. He also went to Tarentum and inspected the naval force under Taurus. Thence he proceeded to Vibo, where he encouraged his infantry and hastened the preparations of his fleet, the time for his second invasion of Sicily being near at hand.
Pompeius did not deign to seize the fine opportunity presented to him by so many shipwrecks. He merely offered sacrifice to the sea and to Neptune, assuming to call himself their son, and persuading himself that it was not without the special act of Providence that his enemies had been twice overwhelmed in this way in the summer months. It is said that he was so much puffed up by these circumstances that he exchanged the purple cloak customary to Roman commanders for a dark blue one, to signify that he was the adopted son of Neptune. He hoped that Octavius would now desist from his undertaking, but when he learned that the latter was building ships and was about to renew the expedition against him that summer, he became alarmed at finding himself at war with a man of such indomitable spirit and such formidable preparations. He sent Menodorus, with the seven ships he had brought, to reconnoitre the dockyards of Octavius and to do whatever damage he could. Menodorus had been vexed for some time past because the naval command had not been given to him, and he now perceived that he was intrusted with only the ships that he had brought, because he was under suspicion. So he plotted a new desertion.
Conceiving that, however matters might turn out, he should first signalize himself by some act of valor, he distributed among his companions all the gold he had, and sailed, by rowing three days, accomplishing a distance of 1500 stades, and fell like a thunderbolt, unperceived, on the vessels that were guarding Octavius’ shipyards, and darted away to an unseen place carrying off the guard-ships by twos and threes. He also sunk, or captured, or burned some merchant vessels, laden with corn, that were moored there or sailing along the coast. Everything was thrown into confusion by this raid of Menodorus, both Octavius and Agrippa being absent. The latter had gone away to procure timber. In a spirit of bravado Menodorus ran his ship upon the soft ground, voluntarily and contemptuously, and pretended to be stuck in the mud, until his enemies dashed down from the mountains as to a certain prey, when he backed away, laughing, and left the soldiers of Octavius the victims of both chagrin and astonishment. When he had sufficiently shown what he was capable of, as enemy or friend, he dismissed a senator whom he had taken prisoner, named Rebillus, having a view already to the future.
During his former desertion he had been a friend of Mindius Marcellus, one of the companions of Octavius, and he now told his own men that Mindius had the intention of betraying his party and deserting to that of Pompeius. Then he drew near to the enemy and invited Mindius to go with him to a small island in order to have a conference. When the latter came, and there was nobody else within earshot, Menodorus said that he had gone back to Pompeius because he was ill-treated by the admiral of those days, Calvisius, but that since Agrippa had been appointed to the command of the fleet he would come back to Octavius, who had done him no wrong, if Mindius would bring him a safe-conduct from Messala, who was commanding in Agrippa’s absence. He said that on his return he would make amends for his fault by brilliant exploits, but that until the safe-conduct arrived he should be obliged to harass the forces of Octavius as before in order to avoid suspicion; and this he did. Messala hesitated on account of the baseness of the transaction, but he nevertheless yielded, either because he considered such things necessary in war, or because he had learned beforehand, or conjectured, the mind of Octavius. Menodorus at once deserted, and, upon the approach of Octavius, threw himself at his feet and begged that he would pardon him without asking for the reasons for his flight. Octavius conceded his safety on account of the pledges made, but had him secretly watched. He dismissed the captains of his triremes and allowed them to go wherever they pleased.
When the fleet was ready Octavius set sail again. He landed at Vibo and
ordered Messala, who had two legions of infantry, to cross over to Sicily,
join the army of Lepidus, pass through to the bay in front of Tauromenium,
and station himself there. He sent three legions to Stylis and the extremity
of the straits, to await events. He ordered Taurus to sail around from
Tarentum to Mount Scylacium, which is opposite Tauromenium.
Such were the preparations of Octavius and Pompeius in this quarter. Meanwhile four more legions were en route to Lepidus from Africa in merchant ships, being the remainder of his army. Papias, one of Pompeius’ captains, threw himself in their way on the sea, and, after they had received him as a friend (for they thought that these were ships sent by Lepidus to meet them), destroyed them. Some ships were despatched by Lepidus later, and when these were approaching, the merchant ships that had escaped mistook them for other enemies and fled. So some of them were burned, some captured, some upset, and the rest returned to Africa. Two legions perished in the sea, or, if any of them could swim, Tisienus, the lieutenant of Pompeius, slew them when they reached the land. The other legions reëmbarked and joined Lepidus, some sooner and some later. Papias sailed back to Pompeius.
Octavius crossed from Vibo with his whole fleet to Strongyle,
Agrippa, with half of his ships, sailed out of Hiera before daylight in order
to have a naval engagement with Papias
Agrippa bore down directly upon Papias and struck his ship under the bow, shattering it and breaking a hole in the keel. The men in the towers were shaken down, the water rushed into the ship, and all the oarsmen on the lower benches were cut off. The others broke through the deck and escaped by swimming. Papias escaped to a ship alongside of his own, and returned to the battle. Pompeius, who observed from a mountain that his ships were making little headway, and that whenever they came to close quarters with the enemy they were denuded of fighting men, and that reinforcements were coming to Agrippa from Hiera, gave the signal to retire in good order. This they did, advancing and retreating little by little. Agrippa continued to bear down upon them, and they took refuge, not on the beach, but among the shoals formed in the sea by river deposits.
Agrippa’s pilots prevented him from running his large ships on the shoals. He cast anchor in the open sea, intending to blockade the enemy and to fight a battle by night if necessary; but his friends advised him not to be carried away by rashness and not to wear out his soldiers with excessive toil and want of sleep, and not to trust to that tempestuous sea. So in the evening he reluctantly withdrew. The Pompeians made sail to their harbors, having lost thirty of their ships, and sunk five of the enemy’s, and having inflicted considerable other damage and suffered as much in return. Pompeius praised his own men because they had resisted such formidable vessels, saying they had fought against walls rather than against ships; and he rewarded them as though they had been victorious. He encouraged them to believe that, as they were lighter, they would prevail over the enemy in the straits on account of the current. He said also that he would make some addition to the height of his ships. Such was the result of the naval battle at Mylae between Agrippa and Papias.
Pompeius suspected that Octavius had gone to the camp of Taurus for the
purpose of attacking Tauromenium, which was the fact. So, directly after
supper, he sailed to Messana, leaving a part of his forces at Mylae
so that Agrippa might think that he was still there. Agrippa, as soon as his
army was sufficiently rested, bestirred himself and set sail for Tyndaris,
which had offered to surrender. He entered the town, but the garrison fought
valiantly and drove him out. Some other towns espoused his cause and
received his garrisons, and he returned that evening. In the meantime,
Octavius had sailed from Scylacium to Leucopetra,The Chalcideans were the
first of the Greeks who sailed from Eubœa, under the
leadership of Theucles, and built Naxos and erected the altar to Apollo
Archegetes, which now stands outside of the town, upon which the Theori,
as often as they make voyages from Sicily, first offer sacrifice.
The
river Onobalas is now called the
When Octavius disembarked from his ship he slipped and fell, but arose
without assistance. While he was yet laying out his camp, Pompeius made his
appearance with a large fleet—an astounding spectacle, since Octavius
believed that he had been beaten by Agrippa. Pompeius’ cavalry advanced at
the same time, rivalling the fleet in rapidity of movement, and his infantry
was seen on the other side. The forces of Octavius were terrified at finding
themselves surrounded by enemies on three sides, and Octavius himself was
alarmed because Messala could not join him. The cavalry of Pompeius assailed
Octavius’ men while they were still fortifying their camp. If his infantry
and his naval force had attacked simultaneously with the cavalry, Pompeius
might have accomplished greater results, but, being inexperienced in war and
ignorant of the panic among the troops of Octavius, and hesitating to begin
a battle at the approach of nightfall, one part of his forces stationed
themselves at the promontory of Coccynus,
Octavius placed all of his infantry under charge of Cornificius, and ordered him to drive back the enemy and do whatever the exigencye required. He took ship before daylight and went seaward lest the enemy should enclose him on this side also, giving the right wing of the fleet to Titinius and the left to Carcius, and embarking himself on a liburnica, with which he sailed around the whole fleet, exhorting them to have courage. Having done this he lowered the general’s ensign, as is customary in times of extreme danger. Pompeius put to sea against him, and they encountered each other twice, the battle ending with the night. Some of Octavius’ ships were captured and burned; others spread their small sails and made for the Italian coast, contrary to orders. Those of Pompeius followed them a short distance and then turned against the remainder, capturing some and burning others. Some of the crews swam ashore, most of whom were slaughtered or taken prisoners by Pompeius’ cavalry. Some of them set out to reach the camp of Cornificius, who sent only his light-armed troops to assist them as they came near, because he did not consider it prudent to move his disheartened legionaries against the enemy’s infantry, who were naturally much encouraged by their victory.
Octavius spent the greater part of the night among his small boats, in doubt
whether he should go back to Cornificius through the scattered remains of
his fleet, or take refuge with Messala. Providence brought him to the harbor
of Abala with a single armor-bearer, without friends, attendants, or slaves.
Certain persons, who had come down from the mountain to learn the news,
found him suffering in body and mind and brought him in rowboats (changing
from one to another for the purpose of concealment) to the camp of Messala,
which was not far distant. Straightway, and before he had attended to his
bodily wants, he despatched a liburnica to Cornificius, and sent word
throughout the mountains that he was safe, and ordered all his forces to
help Cornificius, and wrote to him that he would send him aid forthwith.
After attending to his own person and taking a little rest, he set forth by
night, accompanied by Messala, to Stylis, where Carinas was stationed with
three legions ready to embark, and ordered him to set sail for Lipara,
This was the same Messala whom the triumvirs proscribed at Rome, and for the killing of whom money and freedom were offered as rewards. He had fled to Cassius and Brutus, and after their death had delivered his fleet to Antony, in pursuance of an agreement made between them. It seems fitting to recall this fact in honor of Roman magnanimity, inasmuch as Messala, when he had in his power, overwhelmed with misfortune, the man who had proscribed him, saved him and cared for him as his commander. Cornificius was able easily to defend his camp against attack; but, being in danger from want of supplies, he drew his men out for battle and challenged the enemy. But Pompeius did not care to come to an engagement with men whose only hope rested in battle and whom he expected to subdue by famine. Cornificius, having placed in the centre the unarmed men who had escaped to him from the ships, took to the road, grievously exposed to missiles in the open plains from the enemy’s horsemen and in the broken country from the light-armed troops from Numidia in Africa, who hurled darts from long distances and made their escape when charged by their enemies.
On the fourth day, with difficulty, they arrived at the waterless region which they say was formerly inundated by a stream of fire that ran down as far as the sea and dried up all the streams in the district. The inhabitants of the country traverse it only by night, on account of the stifling heat and the dust and ashes with which it abounds. Being ignorant of the roads and fearing ambush, Cornificius and his men did not dare to march through it by night, especially as there was no moon, nor could they endure the daytime, because of suffocation. Moreover, the bottoms of their feet were burned (especially those who had no shoes), as it was now the hottest part of the summer. On account of the tormenting thirst they could not delay. They could no longer charge upon their assailants, but received wounds without any means of defence. When they saw the place of exit from this burned district occupied by enemies, the able-bodied ones, heedless of their sick and barefooted companions, dashed at the defiles with amazing courage and overpowered the enemy with all their remaining strength. When they found the next defiles occupied by hostile forces they gave way to despair and succumbed to thirst and heat. Cornificius aroused them by showing them a spring of water near by; and again they overpowered the enemy, but with heavy loss to themselves. Another body of enemies held possession of the fountain, and now Cornificius’ men lost all courage and gave way completely.
While they were in this state Laronius, who had been sent by Agrippa with
three legions, made his appearance a long way off. Although it was not yet
plain that he was a friend, still, as they had been all the time hoping for
something of this kind, they once more recovered their spirits. When they
saw the enemy abandon the water in order not to be exposed to attack on both
sides, they shouted for joy with all their strength. When the troops of
Laronius shouted in return, they ran and seized the fountain. The leaders
forbade the men to drink to excess. Some who neglected this advice died
while drinking. In this unexpected manner did Cornificius, and what was left
of his army, escape to Agrippa at Mylae.at Mylae
should be expunged. A few lines below we
read that the garrison of Pompeius still held Mylae, and a
little later that it was taken from him by Octavius.
Agrippa had just taken Tyndaris, a stronghold full of provisions and
admirably situated for naval warfare. Thither Octavius transported his
infantry and cavalry. He had in Sicily all together twenty-one legions of
the former, 20,000 of the latter, and more than 5000 light-armed troops. The
garrison of Pompeius still held Mylae, and all the places from
Mylae to Naulochi and Pelorus, and all the coast. These garrisons,
in fear of Agrippa, kept fires burning continually, signifying that they
would set fire to any ships that should sail against them. Pompeius was also
master of the defiles on both sides of the island. The mountain passes in
the neighborhood of Tauromenium and around Mylae were fortified by
him, and he harassed Octavius when the latter was making a forward movement
from Tyndaris, but not coming to an engagement. Believing that Agrippa was
moving his fleet against him, Pompeius changed his position to Pelorus,
abandoning the defiles around Mylae; and Octavius occupied them and
also Mylae and Artemisium, a very small town, in which, they say,
were the cattle of the Sun and where Ulysses fell asleep.
When the report of Agrippa’s movement turned out to be false, Pompeius was
troubled that he had lost the defiles,Palestenians,
but Cluver gives reasons for
considering this an error for Abacaenians.
As there had been many skirmishes throughout Sicily, but no general
engagement, Octavius sent Taurus to cut off Pompeius’ supplies by first
capturing the towns that furnished them. Pompeius was so much inconvenienced
by this that he decided to stake everything on a great battle. Since he
feared the enemy’s infantry, but had confidence in his own ships, he sent
and asked Octavius if he would allow the war to be decided by a naval
engagement. Octavius, although he dreaded all naval encounters, which until
now had turned out badly for him, considered it base to refuse, and,
accordingly, accepted the challenge. A day was fixed by them, for which 300
ships were put in readiness on either side, provided with missiles of all
kinds, with towers and whatever machines they could think of. Agrippa
devised one called the
When the appointed day came the rival shouts of the oarsmen were first heard, accompanied by missiles thrown by machines and by hand, such as stones, firebrands, and arrows. Then the ships dashed against each other, some striking amidships, others on the prows, others on the beaks, where the blows are most effectual in discomposing the crew and rendering the vessel useless. Others broke the opposing line by sailing through it, at the same time discharging arrows and javelins; and the small boats picked up those who fell overboard. There was a struggle of soldiers while the sailors put forth their strength and the pilots their skill and their lung-power. The generals cheered their men, and all the machines were brought into requisition. The harpago achieved the greatest success. Thrown from a long distance upon the ships, as it could be by reason of its lightness, it clutched them, especially when the ropes pulled on it from behind. On account of the iron bands it could not be easily cut by the men whom it attacked, and those who tried to cut the ropes were prevented from reaching them by its length. As this apparatus had never been known before, the enemy had not provided themselves with scythe-mounted poles. One thing seemed advisable in this unexpected emergency, and that was, to back water and draw the ship away; but as the enemy did the same the force exerted by the men was equal on both sides, and the harpago did its work.
Accordingly, when the ships were drawn together, there was every kind of fighting, the men leaping upon each other’s decks. It was no longer easy to distinguish an enemy from a friend, as they used the same weapons for the most part, and nearly all spoke the Latin tongue, and the watchwords of each side were divulged to the other while they were mingled together. Hence arose many and divers frauds and lack of confidence on both sides on the part of those using the same watchword. They failed to recognize each other completely, and meanwhile the fighting and the sea were a confused medley of corpses, clashing arms, and crashing ships. They left nothing untried except fire. This they abstained from, after their first onset, because they were locked together. The foot-soldiers of each army on the land beheld this sea-fight with apprehension and eagerness, believing that their own hope of safety was bound up in it. They could not distinguish anything, however sharply they might look, but merely a long-drawn-out line of 600 ships, and an alternation of cries and groans now on one side and now on the other.
Judging from the colors of the towers, which constituted the only difference between them, Agrippa with difficulty made out that Pompeius’ ships had sustained the greater loss, and he cheered on those who were close to him as though they were already victors. Then he drove at the enemy and pressed upon them without ceasing, until he overpowered those nearest him. They then lowered their towers and turned their ships in flight toward the straits. Seventeen of them, which were in advance, made their escape thither. The rest were cut off by Agrippa and some were pursued and driven aground. The pursuers ran aground with them in the rush, and either pulled off those that had come to a standstill or set fire to them. When the Pompeian ships that were still fighting saw what had befallen these, they surrendered to their enemies. Then the soldiers of Octavius who were in the ships raised a shout of victory and those on the land gave an answering shout. Those of Pompeius groaned. Pompeius himself, darting away from Naulochi, hastened to Messana, giving no orders to his infantry in his panic. Accordingly Octavius received the surrender of Tisienus on terms agreed upon, and of the cavalry besides, who were surrendered by their officers. Three of Octavius’ ships were sunk in the fight. Pompeius lost twenty-eight in this way, and the remainder were burned, or captured, or run aground, and stove in pieces, except the seventeen that escaped.
Pompeius learned of the defection of his infantry while on the road, and changed his costume from that of a commander to that of a private citizen, and sent orders to Messana to put on shipboard everything possible. All preparations to this end had been made long before. He summoned Plennius from Lilybaeum in haste, with the eight legions he had, intending to take flight with them. Plennius hastened to comply with this order, but as other friends, garrisons, and soldiers were deserting, and the enemy’s fleet was moving into the straits, Pompeius did not wait for Plennius in his well-fortified city, but fled, with his seventeen ships, from Messana to Antony, whose mother he had saved in similar circumstances. After his departure Plennius arrived at Messana and occupied the place. Octavius himself remained in the camp at Naulochi, but he ordered Agrippa to lay siege to Messana, which the latter did, in conjunction with Lepidus. Plennius sent envoys to treat for peace. Agrippa wanted to wait till morning for the arrival of Octavius, but Lepidus granted terms, and, in order to conciliate the soldiers of Plennius to himself, allowed them to join the rest of the army in plundering the city. They had asked for nothing but safety, and now, finding unexpected gain in addition, they plundered Messana the whole night, in conjunction with the soldiers of Lepidus, and then ranged themselves under his standards.
Including this new accession, Lepidus now had twenty-two legions of infantry and a large body of cavalry. He was elated, and thought to make himself master of Sicily, using the pretext that he was the first to invade the island and that he had induced many cities to join the triumvirs. He sent word to the garrisons of these places that they should not admit the emissaries of Octavius, and he seized all the defiles. Octavius arrived on the following day, and reproached Lepidus through friends, who reminded him that he had come into Sicily as an ally of Octavius, not to acquire it for himself. Lepidus replied that he had been despoiled of his former allotment, which was now in the exclusive possession of Octavius, and that, if the latter pleased, he would now exchange Africa and Sicily for that former allotment. Octavius was exasperated. He came to Lepidus in anger and heaped reproaches on him for ingratitude. They separated, indulging in mutual threats. They forthwith surrounded themselves with guards, and the ships of Octavius were anchored away from the shore, as it was said that Lepidus intended to set fire to them.
The soldiers were angry at the thought of engaging in another civil war, and that there was never to be an end of sedition. They did not, however, seek to compare Octavius and Lepidus; not even the army of Lepidus did that. They admired the energy of Octavius, and.they were aware of the indolence of Lepidus. They also blamed him for admitting the defeated enemy to an equal share of the plunder. When Octavius learned their state of mind, he sent emissaries among them to advise them secretly of their individual interests. Many of them he tampered with, especially those who had served under Pompeius, who feared lest the terms of their capitulation should not be valid if Octavius did not ratify them. While Lepidus, by reason of his ineptitude, remained ignorant of these things Octavius came to his camp with a large body of horse, whom he left at the entrance, and himself went in with a few. Coming forward, he declared to those whom he met that he was drawn into war unwillingly. Those who saw him saluted him as imperator. First of all the Pompeians, who had been tampered with, collected together and asked his forgiveness. He said that he was astonished that persons asking forgiveness should not do what their own interests demanded. They understood his meaning, and forthwith seized their standards and went over to him, while others began to take down their tents.
When Lepidus became aware of this tumult he sprang from his tent to arms.
Blows were exchanged and one of Octavius’ armor-bearers was killed. Octavius
himself was struck by a weapon on his breastplate, but it did not penetrate
the flesh, and he ran and took refuge with his horsemen. A detachment of
guards belonging to Lepidus jeered at him as he ran. Octavius was so angry
that he could not restrain himself from dashing upon them with his
horsemenLet go, or you are
a dead man.
Then he was afraid and let go.
The last to come over were the cavalry. They sent a messenger to Octavius to
ask if they should kill Lepidus, who was no longer a commander. He replied
in the negative. Thus was Lepidus deserted by all and bereft, in a moment of
time, of so exalted a station and so great an army. He changed his costume
and hastened to Octavius, all the spectators running with him to enjoy the
spectacle. Octavius started up as he approached, and prevented him from
throwing himself at his feet, and sent him to Rome in the garb of a private
citizen, which he was wearing, deprived of his command, but not of the
priesthood, which he held. And so this man, who had often been a commander
and once a triumvir, who had appointed magistrates and had proscribed so
many men of his own rank, passed his life as a private citizen, asking
favors of some of the proscribed, who were magistrates at a later
period.
Octavius neither pursued Pompeius nor allowed others to do so; either because he refrained from encroaching on Antony’s dominions, or because he preferred to wait and see what Antony would do to Pompeius and make that a pretext for a quarrel if he should do wrong (for they had long entertained the suspicion that ambition would bring them into mutual conflict when other rivals were out of the way), or, as Octavius said later, because Pompeius was not one of his father’s murderers. He now brought his forces together, and they amounted to forty-five legions of infantry, 25,000 horse, and some 40,000 light-armed troops. He also had 600 war-ships and an immense number of merchant vessels, which he sent back to their owners. To the soldiers he awarded the prizes of victory, paying a part down and promising the rest later. He distributed crowns and other honors to all, and granted pardon to the Pompeian leaders.
Fortune became jealous of his great prosperity.Well said
; whereupon Octavius descended from the platform in
anger. The soldiers gathered around the tribune, praising him and railing at
those who did not join with them. Ofilius said that he alone would suffice
to defend so just a cause, but after saying this he disappeared the
following day, and it was never known what became of him.
The soldiers no longer dared to give utterance to their complaints singly,
but they joined together in groups and called for their discharge in common.
Octavius conciliated their leaders in various ways. He released those who
had served at Philippi and Mutina, and who wished to be discharged, as their
time had expired. These, to the number of 20,000, he dismissed and sent out
of the island at once, lest they should seduce the others. To those only
who had served at Mutina he added, that, although they were discharged in this way, he would fulfil the promises made to them at that time. He came before the rest of the army and called upon them to bear witness to the perjury of the revolters, who had been dismissed contrary to the wish of their military commander. He praised those who remained with him, and encouraged them to expect a speedy release, saying that nobody would be sorry, and that they would be discharged rich, and that he would give them 500 drachmas per man now. Having thus spoken, he exacted tribute from Sicily to the amount of 1600 talents, appointed propraetors for Africa and Sicily, and assigned a division of the army to each of these provinces. He sent back Antony’s ships to Tarentum. A part of the army he sent in advance of himself to Italy in ships, and took the remainder with him when he departed from the island.
When he arrived at Rome the Senate voted him unbounded honors, giving him the
privilege of accepting all, or such as he chose. They and the people went
out a long distance to meet him, wearing garlands on their heads, and
escorted him, when he arrived, first to the temples, and then from the
temples to his house. The next day he made speeches to the Senate and to the
people, recounting his exploits and his policy from the beginning to the
present time. These speeches he wrote down and distributed in pamphlet form.
He proclaimed peace and good-will, said that the civil wars were ended,
remitted the unpaid taxes, and released the farmers of the revenue and the
holders of public leases from what they owed. Of the honors voted to him, he
accepted an ovationovation
is
supposed to be derived.PEACE, LONG DISTURBED, HE REËSTABLISHED ON LAND AND
SEA.
When the people desired to transfer from Lepidus to himself the office of pontifex maximus, which the law bestowed upon one person for life, he would not accept it, and when they prayed that Lepidus might be put to death as a public enemy he would not allow it. He sent sealed letters to all the armies, with instructions to open them all on a designated day and to execute the orders contained therein. These orders related to the slaves who had run away during the civil dissensions and joined the armies, for whom Pompeius had asked freedom, which the Senate and the treaty had granted. These were all arrested on the same day and brought to Rome, and Octavius returned them to their Roman or Italian masters, or to the heirs of the same. He also gave back those belonging to Sicilian masters. Those whom nobody claimed he caused to be put to death in the cities from which they had absconded.
This seemed to be the end of the civil dissensions. Octavius was now
twenty-eight years of age. Cities joined in placing him among their tutelary
gods. At this time Italy and Rome itself were openly infested with bands of
robbers, whose doings were more like barefaced plunder than secret theft.
Sabinus was chosen by Octavius to correct this disorder. He executed many of
the captured brigands, and within one year brought about a condition of
absolute security. At that time, they say, originated the custom and system
of cohorts of night watchmen still in force. Octavius excited astonishment
by having put an end to this evil with such unexampled rapidity. He allowed
the yearly magistrates to administer public affairs, in many particulars,
according to the customs of the fathers. He burned the writings which
contained evidence concerning the civil strife, and said that he would
abdicate entirely when Antony should return from the Parthian war, for he
was persuaded that Antony, too, would be willing to lay down the government,
the civil wars being at an end. Thereupon he was chosen tribune for life by
acclamation, the people urging him, by the offer of this perpetual
magistracy, to give up his former one.
Pompeius, fleeing from Sicily to Antony, stopped at the Lacinian promontory and robbed the rich temple of Juno of its gifts. He landed at Mitylene and spent some time at that place, where his father, when at war with Caesar, had bestowed him with his mother, when he was still a boy, and where his father had recovered him after his defeat. As Antony was now waging war in Media against the Medes and the Parthians, Pompeius decided to intrust himself to Antony on his return. When he heard that Antony had been worsted, and this result was confirmed by the reports, his hopes once more revived, and he fancied that he might succeed Antony if the latter were dead, or share his power if he returned. He was continually thinking of Labienus, who had overrun Asia not long before. While he was in this frame of mind the news reached him that Antony had returned to Alexandria. Scheming with both projects, he sent ambassadors to Antony ostensibly to place himself at the latter’s disposal and to offer himself as a friend and ally, but really to get accurate information about Antony’s affairs. At the same time he sent others secretly to the princes of Thrace and Pontus, intending, if he should not obtain what he desired from Antony, to take flight through Pontus to Armenia. He sent also to the Parthians, hoping that, for the remainder of their war against Antony, they would be eager to receive him as a general, because he was a Roman, and especially because he was the son of Pompey the Great. He refitted his ships and drilled the soldiers he had brought in them, pretending at one time that he was in fear of Octavius, and at another that he was getting ready to assist Antony.
As soon as Antony heard of the coming of Pompeius he designated Titius to
take the field against him. He ordered the latter to take ships and soldiers
from Syria and to wage war vigorously against Pompeius if he showed himself
hostile, but to treat him with honor if he submitted himself to Antony. Then
he gave audience to the ambassadors who had arrived, and who addressed him
as follows: Pompeius has sent us to you, not because he was without a place
of refuge (if he were minded to continue the war) in Spain, a country
friendly to him on his father’s account and which espoused his own cause
when he was younger, and even now calls upon him for that purpose, but
because he prefers to enjoy peace with you, or, if need be, to fight under
your orders. He makes these advances now not for the first time, but did so
while he was master of Sicily and was ravaging Italy, and when he rescued
your mother and sent her to you. If you had accepted these advances,
Pompeius would not have been driven out of Sicily (for you would not have
provided Octavius with ships against him), nor would you have been defeated
in Parthia, in consequence of Octavius, not sending you the soldiers he
agreed to send. In fact, you would now be in possession of Italy in addition
to your other dominions. As you did not accept the offer at the time when it
would have been most advantageous to you, he repeats it now in order that
you may not be so often ensnared by Octavius’ words and by the marriage
relationship existing between you; for you will remember that, although he
is connected by marriage with Pompeius, he declared war against the latter
after the treaty had been made, and without excuse. He also deprived
Lepidus, his partner in the government, of his share, and divided no part of
it with you.
You are now the only remaining one who stands between him and the monarchy
that he longs for. He would already have been at blows with you, had not
Pompeius stood in the way. Although you ought to have foreseen these things
for yourself, Pompeius calls your attention to them out of good-will,
because he prefers a candid and magnanimous man to a deceitful, treacherous,
and artful one. He does not blame you for the gift of ships which you made
to Octavius against him as a matter of necessity, in order to procure
soldiers for the Parthian war in exchange, but he reminds you that those
soldiers were not sent. In short, Pompeius delivers himself to you with the
ships which he still has and his most faithful soldiers, who have not
abandoned him even in his flight. If peace is maintained, it will be a great
glory to you to have saved the son of Pompey the Great. In case of war, he
will be a considerable help to your party in the conflict which is coming,
unless, to be sure, it has already come.
When the ambassadors had thus spoken, Antony showed them the orders he had
sent to Titius, and said that if Pompeius was truly in this frame of mind he
should come in person under the escort of Titius. In the meantime, the
messengers who had been sent by Pompeius to the Parthians were captured by
Antony’s generals and brought to Alexandria. After Antony had examined each
of them he summoned the ambassadors of Pompeius and showed the captives to
them. They made excuses for Pompeius even then as a young man in a desperate
plight, fearful lest Antony should not treat him kindly, and driven by
necessity to make trial even of the bitterest enemies of Rome. They said
that he would show his true disposition as soon as he should learn Antony’s,
and would then need no other attempt or devices. Antony believed them, being
in other respects and at all times of a frank, magnanimous, and unsuspecting
nature.
In the meantime Furnius, who was governing the province of Asia for Antony,
had received Pompeius when he arrived, as he was behaving quietly; since
Furnius had not sufficient force to prevent him and did not yet know
Antony’s mind. Seeing Pompeius drilling his troops, he
Furnius did not begin hostilities, but he continually camped alongside of Pompeius with a large body of horse and prevented his foe from foraging or winning the cities to his side. As Pompeius had no cavalry, he assaulted the camp of Furnius in front and, at the same time, sent a force secretly around to his rear. Furnius accordingly directed his forces against Pompeius’ front attack, but he was driven out of his camp by the force in his rear. Pompeius pursued his men and killed many as they fled over the Scamandrian plain, which was saturated with recent rains. Those who were saved withdrew to a place of safety, as they were not fit for battle. While they were waiting for assistance from Mysia, the Propontis, and elsewhere, the inhabitants, who were distressed by continual exactions, enlisted gladly under Pompeius, especially on account of the reputation he had gained by his victory at the harbor of the Achaeans. While Pompeius was deficient in cavalry, and was thus crippled in procuring supplies, he learned that a troop of Italian horse was coming to Antony, sent by Octavia, who was passing the winter in Athens. So he sent emissaries with gold to corrupt this troop, but Antony’s governor of Macedonia caught these men and distributed their gold to the cavalry.
Pompeius took Nicaea and Nicomedia, from which he obtained large supplies of money, and his strength was augmented in all respects with a rapidity that exceeded his expectations. But Furnius, who was camping not far away from him, was reënforced, at the beginning of spring, first with seventy ships that had come from Sicily, which had been saved from those that Antony had lent to Octavius against Pompeius; for after the close of the war in Sicily Octavius had dismissed them. Then Titius arrived from Syria with 120 additional ships and a large army; and all these had landed at Proconnesus. Pompeius became alarmed and burned his own ships and armed his oarsmen, believing that he could fight to better advantage with all of his forces combined on land. Cassius of Parma, Nasidius, Saturninus, Thermus, Antistius, and the other distinguished men of his party who were still with him as friends, and Fannius, who held the highest rank of all, and Pompeius’ father-in-law, Libo, when they saw that he did not desist from war against superior forces even after Titius, to whom Antony had given entire charge, had arrived, despaired of him, and, having made terms for themselves, went over to Antony.
Pompeius, now deserted by his friends, withdrew to the interior of Bithynia, being reported as making his way to Armenia. One night as he marched out of his camp quietly, Furnius and Titius followed him, and Amyntas joined in the pursuit. After a hot chase they came up with him toward evening, and each encamped by himself around a certain hill without ditch or palisade, as it was late and they were tired. While they were in this state, Pompeius made a night attack with 300 light troops and killed many who were still asleep or springing out of bed. The rest took to disgraceful flight in a state of nudity. It is evident that if Pompeius had made this night attack with his entire army, or if he had followed up energetically the victory he did win, he would have overcome them completely. But, misled by a god, he gave no heed to these opportunities, and he gained no other advantage from the affair than to penetrate farther into the interior of the country. His enemies, having formed a junction, followed him and cut off his supplies, until he was in danger from want. Then he sought an interview with Furnius, who had been a friend of Pompey the Great, and who was of higher rank and of a more trustworthy character than the others.
Taking a position where a river flowed between them, Pompeius said that he
had sent ambassadors to Antony, and he added that, being in need of
provisions meanwhile, and nobody supplying him, he had done what he had
done. If you have fought against me,
he continued, by Antony’s direction,
Antony has misconceived his own interests in not foreseeing the coming war.
If you are anticipating Antony’s intentions, I protest and implore you to
wait for the embassy that I sent to Antony or to take and bring me to him
now. I will surrender myself to you alone, Furnius, asking merely your
pledge that you will conduct me to him in safety.
He spoke thus because he
had confidence in Antony as a man of generous nature, and he apprehended
merely that something might happen to him on the journey. Furnius replied to
him as follows: If you wished to surrender yourself to Antony you ought to
have done so in the beginning, or else have waited quietly at Mitylene for
his answer. But if you desired the war you should have done as you have
done. Why is it necessary to recount your deeds to one who knows them? If
now you repent, do not bring us, generals, into collision with each other,
but surrender yourself to Titius, to whom these matters have been intrusted
by Antony. The pledge which you ask from me you can ask from him. He has
been ordered by Antony to put you to death if you wage war, but, if you
surrender yourself, to send you to him in an honorable manner.
Pompeius was angry with Titius as an ingrate, in that he undertook to wage this war against him, for he had once been taken prisoner and spared by Pompeius. Besides being angry he considered it beneath his dignity to be in the power of Titius, who was not of noble birth. Moreover he suspected Titius, either because he was acquainted with his character and did not consider him trustworthy, or because he was conscious of some old injury done to him previous to the benefaction above mentioned. Again he offered to surrender himself to Furnius, and begged that he would receive him. When the latter refused he said that he would surrender to Amyntas. Furnius said that Amyntas would not receive him, because that would be an insult to the one whom Antony had intrusted with this whole business; and so the interview ended. The opinion prevailed in the camp of Furnius that, for want of other resources, Pompeius would deliver himself up to Titius on the following day. When night came Pompeius left the customary fires burning, and the trumpets giving the usual signal at intervals through the night, while he quietly withdrew from the camp with a well-prepared band, who had not been previously advised whither they were to go. He intended to go to the sea-shore and burn Titius’ fleet, and perhaps would have done so had not Scaurus deserted from him and communicated the fact of his departure and the road he had taken, although ignorant of his design. Amyntas, with 1500 horse, pursued Pompeius, who had no cavalry. When Amyntas drew near, Pompeius’ men passed over to him, some privately, others openly. Pompeius, being almost entirely deserted and afraid of his own men, surrendered himself to Amyntas without conditions, although he had scorned to surrender to Titius with conditions.
Thus was Sextus Pompeius captured. He was the last remaining son of Pompey the Great, and had been deprived of his father when very young and of his brother while still a stripling. After their death he concealed himself for a long time and practised robbery secretly in Spain until he had collected a large following, because he made himself known as Pompey’s son. Then he practised more open robbery. After the death of Gaius Caesar he carried on war vigorously and collected a large army, together with ships and money, took islands, became master of the western sea, brought famine upon Italy, and compelled his enemies to make peace on such terms as he chose. Of most importance was the aid that he rendered to the proscribed in Rome exposed to utter destruction, rescuing many of the nobility who were, at this later time, safe at home by means of him. But stricken with mental aberration, he never pursued an aggressive policy against his foes, although fortune offered him many opportunities; he only defended himself. After such a career Pompeius was taken prisoner.
Titius brought Pompeius’ soldiers into Antony’s service and put Pompeius
himself to death at Miletus in the fortieth year of his age. This he did
either on his own account, angry at some former insult, and ungrateful for
the subsequent kindness, or in pursuance of Antony’s order. Some say that
Plancus, not Antony, gave this order. They think that Plancus, while
governing Syria, was authorized by letters to sign Antony’s name in cases of
urgency and to use his seal. Others think that it was written by Plancus
with Antony’s knowledge, but that the latter was ashamed to write it on
account of the name Pompeius, and because Cleopatra was favorable to him on
account of Pompey the Great. Still others think that Plancus, being
cognizant of these facts, took it upon himself to give the order as a matter
of precaution, lest Pompeius, with the coöperation of Cleopatra,
should breed dissension between Antony and Octavius.
After the death of Pompeius Antony made a new expedition to Armenia, and Octavius made one against the Illyrians, who were plundering Italy, some of whom had never been subject to the Romans, while others had revolted during the civil wars. Since these Illyrian affairs are not very well known to me, and are not of sufficient length to make a book by themselves, and have no suitable place to be treated elsewhere, I have recorded them above (beginning with the time when Illyria was acquired by the Romans and bringing them down to the end), and added them to the history of the neighboring Macedonia.
WHEN Troy was captured on the 8th day of the month of December,
Aeneas fled to Mount Ida, passing through the Achaeans,
who gave way to him as he was carrying off his household gods and his
family. Others say that it was not that pious sight that saved him, but that
Aeneas had often urged the barbarians to give Helen back to the
Achaeans. There, having collected a band of Phrygians,
Ascanius then became king in his stead. Despising Lavinium as a paltry town, Ascanius founded another under the Alban mount and named it Alba, which, after it had held sway 300 years, the Romans destroyed, so that not even a foundation was left. Silvius, the third in descent, succeeded Ascanius. Then another Aeneas was the fourth, Latinus was the fifth, Capys the sixth, Capetus the seventh, Tiberinus the eighth, Agrippa the ninth, Romulus the tenth, Aventinus the eleventh, Procas the twelfth, and Numitor and Amulius the thirteenth.
The father of these left the kingdom to Numitor as the elder of the two. His brother Amulius dispossessed him and became king. Amulius, fearing vengeance, slew Egestus, Numitor’s son, while hunting, and being apprehensive lest the sister of Egestus should bear children he made her a vestal. She became pregnant, as she said, by Mars, while drawing water from a fountain sacred to him, and gave birth to Remus and Romulus. Amulius accordingly incarcerated her and gave the boys to be thrown into the Tiber, which was at that time called the Thubris. The bearers took the boys to the river. They were shepherds, and they placed the basket on the margin of the water where the river was marshy. After they had gone away the water receded and the babes were left on dry land, and a she-wolf stepped into the basket and suckled them. Laurentia, the wife of the shepherd Faustulus . . . They were reared to manhood in the practice of robbery, and Remus was captured while raiding the estates of Numitor, and was brought before Amulius.
The latter sent him to his brother Numitor, as the one who had suffered the robbery, to be condemned and punished. But Numitor, when he beheld the young man and reckoned up the time when he was exposed and the other circumstances, began to suspect the truth, and examined him closely as to his bringing up. Romulus became alarmed, and learning from Faustulus the facts concerning himself and his brother, and how his mother had been incarcerated, collected a band of shepherds and with them attacked Amulius, and, having killed him, proclaimed Numitor king of the Albans. Then they built a city on the bank of the river by the side of which they had been exposed and nourished, and where they had practised robbery after they had grown up; and they named it Rome. It was previously called the Tetragon, because its perimeter was sixteen stades, having four stades on each side.
As regards the matter related to Graevius by a certain Greek named Jeremiah, concerning various unpublished fragments of Appian, which have been preserved on Mount Athos (see Burmann,ep. syll. vol. iv. p. 69), he seems to have had in mind the fragment of the twenty-fourth book, published by Miller and more lately by Treu.
[APPIAN says, at the end of his twenty-fourth book:] While I was once fleeing
from the Jews, during the war that occurred in Egypt, and was passing
through Arabia Petraea to a river where a small boat was waiting to
convey me to Pelusium, an Arab was conducting me on my journey by night, and
as I thought we were nearing the boat, a raven croaked, just before dawn,
and the Arab exclaimed, in alarm, We have lost our way.
Again the raven
croaked, and he said, We are lost completely.
While I was troubled and was
looking around for a guide, but could find none (as it was still very early
in the morning and in a hostile country), the Arab heard the bird a third
time, and joyfully exclaimed, We are lost for our own good, and we shall
find our road.
I smiled at the idea of our finding our lost road and gave
myself up to despair, being surrounded by enemies on all sides and unable to
turn back on account of those behind me, to escape whom I had come hither.
And so, for want of any other resource, I followed, surrendering myself to
the oracle. While I was in this condition another river appeared
unexpectedly, one very near to Pelusium, and also a trireme bound for that
place, in which I embarked and was saved. The small boat that was waiting
for me in the other river was captured by the Jews. So remarkable was the
good fortune that I enjoyed and so great was my astonishment at the oracle.
These men are very religious, they are skilled in the art of divination,
they are tillers of the soil, and they understand the use of drugs. It is
probable that, finding good land in Egypt (being agriculturists), and a race
like themselves devoted to religion, practising divination, and not
inexperienced in drugs and astrology, they were pleased to abide there as
among people of like habits with themselves.