[1] Ad capita bubula. Lanciani (Remains of Ancient Rome, p. 139) says that this was the name of a lane at the eastern corner of the Palatine. Others have thought it to be the name of the house, as the ad malum Punicum in which Domitian was born (Suet., Dom. 1). So later we hear of a house at Rome quæ est ad Palmam (Codex Theod., p. 3). The house may have had its name from a frieze with ox-heads on it, like the tomb of Metella, which came to be called Capo-di-bove. It seems less easy to account for a lane being so called. See also p. 205.
[2] C. I. L., vol. i. p. 279.
[3] Cicero, ad Q. Fr. 1, 1, 21; 1, 2, 7. Velleius Pat., 2, 59; Sueton., Aug. 3.
[4] The plebeian Atii Balbi do not seem to have been important. M. Atius Balbus was prætor in B.C. 62 (with Cæsar), governor of Sardinia B.C. 61-60, and in B.C. 59 was one of the XX viri under the Julian land law (Cic., ad Att. ii. 4).
[5] These and other stories will be found in Sueton., Aug. 94, and Dio, 45, 2. Vergil makes skilful use of them in Æn., vi. 797, sqq.
[6] Antony, when he wished to depreciate Augustus, asserted that his great-grandfather had a rope-walk at Thurii; and some such connection of his ancestors with that place may account for the cognomen, which would naturally be dropped afterwards (Suet., Aug. 7).
[7] The marriage could not have taken place earlier than the middle of B.C. 57, for when Atia’s first husband died Philippus was in Syria. He was succeeded by Gabinius in B.C. 57, and reached Italy in time to stand for the consulship, the elections that year being at the ordinary time, i.e., July (Cic., ad Att. 4, 2).
[8] L. Marcius Philippus was the son of the famous orator, and was a warm supporter of Cicero. With his colleague as consul-designate he proposed the prosecution of Clodius (Cic., ad Q. Fr. ii. 1). When the civil war was beginning he was allowed by Cæsar to remain neutral (Cic., ad Att. ix. 15; x. 4). But Cicero found him tiresome company, for he was garrulous and prosy (ad Att. xii. 9, 16, 18); and in the troublous times following the assassination of Cæsar he set little store by his opinion (ad Att. xvi. 14; ad Brut. i. 17).
[9] The law of B.C. 52 allowed Cæsar to be “elected in his absence” (absentis rationem haberi), but said nothing of his being in possession of a province. By long prescription the Senate had the right of deciding when a provincial governor should be “succeeded.” But then Cæsar’s term of provincial government had been fixed by a lex, which was superior to a Senatus-consultum; and he might also argue that if it was unconstitutional for a man to be elected consul while holding a province, the Senate had violated the constitution in allowing Pompey to be consul in B.C. 52.
[10] The Senate did not insist on the professio, from which Cæsar had been exempted by name in Pompey’s law. But its contention was that it still retained the right of naming the date at which a man was to leave his province, and of deciding in regard to an election whether a man was a legal candidate, which might depend on other things besides the making or not making a professio.
[11] The difficulty was that both consuls were absent. There was no one therefore capable of holding a consular election. But as the other curule magistrates still existed, “the auspicia had not returned to the Fathers,” who could not therefore name an interrex. The Prætor Lepidus—though willing—could not “create” a maius imperium. The only way out of it was to name a Dictator (com. hab. causa); but one of the consuls, according to tradition, could alone do that. Eventually Lepidus, by a special vote of the people was authorised to name Cæsar as Dictator—which had precedents in the cases of Fabius Maximus and Sulla—and Cæsar, as Dictator, held the consular elections. Cæs., b. c. ii, 21; Dio, 41, 36.
[12] Nicolas (ch. 4) says that he took the toga virilis about fourteen (περὶ ἔτη μάλιστα γεγονὼς τεσσαρακαίδεκα). But Suetonius (Aug. 8) says that he spoke the laudatio of his grandmother in his twelfth year, and “four years afterwards” took the toga virilis.
[13] Octavius was sui iuris, his father being dead; his adoption therefore required the formal passing of a lex curiata. Now the opposition, supported by Antony, against this formality being carried out was one of the grounds of Octavian’s quarrel with him in B.C. 44-3, and the completion of it was one of the first things secured by Octavian on his entrance into Rome in August, B.C. 43 [Appian, b. c. iii. 94; Dio, 45, 5]. This seems conclusive against the theory that Iulius adopted him in his lifetime. Moreover all authorities speak of the adoption as made by Will. Livy, Ep. 116, testamento in nomen adoptatus est; Velleius, ii. 59, testamentum apertum est, quo C. Octavium nepotem sororis suæ Iuliæ adoptabat. See also Appian, b. c. iii. 11; Dio, 45, 3; Plutarch, Brut. 22. It is true that Nicolas—speaking of the triumph of B.C. 46—(§ 8) says υἱὸν ἤδη πεποιημἐνος. But if he means anything more than “regarding him as a son,” he twice afterwards contradicts himself: See § 17 ἀπήγγελλον τά τε ἄλλα καὶ ὡς ἐν ταῖς διαθήκαις ὡς υἱὸς εἴη Καίσαρι ἐγγεγραμμένος. Cf. § 13.
[14] Cicero, ad Att. xii. 48, 49; Nicholas, § 14; Valer. Max., 1, 15, 2. For the subsequent fate of the man see Cicero, ad Att. xiv. 6, 7, 8; App., b. c. iii. 2-3.
[15] The patrician gentes were dying out, and it was thought good to replenish their numbers, thus gradually forming a class of nobles distinct from these ennobled by office. In making the Octavii patricians, the initiative was taken by the Senate; in later times, however, the power of creating patricii was conferred on the imperator. Iulius seems also to have done it on his own authority. (Dio, 43, 47; Suet., Aug. 2.)
[16] He took with him Apollodorus of Pergamus, a well-known author of a system of rhetoric (Suet., Aug. 89; Strabo, 13, 4, 3; Quinct., 3, 1, 17). Other teachers of his, whether at Apollonia or elsewhere, are Areius of Alexandria, Alexander of Pergamus, Athenodorus of Tarsus (Suet. l. c.; Dio, 51, 4; Plutarch, Ant. 11; Nicol. Dam., § 17; Zonaras, 10, 38).
[17] Suet., Aug. 65; Vell. Paterc., 2, 59, 64; App., b. c. 5, 66; Dio, 48, 33. The other instance of a friend who fell into disfavour and ruin quoted by Suetonius is Cornelius Gallus. But he does not seem to have been at Apollonia. He was nearly three years older than Augustus, and in B.C. 44-3 was perhaps with Pollio in Bætica. See Cic., ad Fam. x. 32.
[18] Nicolas, § 16; App., b. c. iii. 9-10.
[19] Dolabella consul for the last half of B.C. 44 with Antony; Pansa and Hirtius, B.C. 43; Plancus and Dec. Brutus B.C. 42. Probably M. Brutus and C. Cassius (or certainly the former) B.C. 41 [Plut., Cæs. 62; Cic., ad Fam. xii. 2]. For B.C. 43 prætors and other magistrates were named, but for the next years only consuls and tribunes.
[20] Dio, 43, 47, καὶ ἔς γε τὰ ἔθνη ἀκληρωτὶ ἐξεπέμφθησαν.
[21] M. Brutus, C. Cassius, Dec. Brutus, L. Cimber, C. Trebonius.
[22] Cic., ad Att. xiv. 9; Cæs., b. c. ii. 22; Plut., Ant. xi.
[23] Dio, 46, 60.
[24] Cæsar had auxiliaries in Spain from Aquitania B.C. 49; Cæs., b. c. i. 39.
[25] Cicero, ad Att. xiv. 5, 8, 9.
[26] Livy, Ep. 62. Appian says that Metellus did not fight, but was received as a friend, wintered at Salonæ, and then went home and claimed a triumph (Illyr. xi.).
[27] Eutrop., v. 4.
[28] Id. vi. 4; Oros., v. 23.
[29] Cæs., b. c. iii. 5, 9.
[30] Livy, Ep. 110; App., b. c. ii. 47.
[31] Id., b. c. ii. 59.
[32] Cæs., b. Alex. 42-3.
[33] Id., 34-6.
[34] Cic., ad Fam. v. 10 (a), 10, 11.
[35] App., Illyr. 13.
[36] App., b. c. iv. 75; Dio, 47, 21. Vatinius was ill, and his late reverses had lost him the confidence of his men, who insisted on being transferred to Brutus.
[37] Dio, 43, 42; Horace, Odes, iii. 1, 13.
[38] Cæs., b. Alex. 48-64; Hisp. 7, 12.
[39] App., b. c. ii. 107.
[40] Wrongly called Aulus Albinus by Appian, b. c. ii. 48; see Klein, die Verwaltungsbeamten der Provinzen, p. 83.
[41] Cic., ad Fam. xiii. 30, 36, 50, 78, 79; Cæs., b. Afr. 2, 26, 34.
[42] Cic., ad Fam. vi. 16, 17.
[43] Dio, 48, 17, 19; Livy, Ep. 123; Appian, b. c. iv. 84. A certain M. Casinius was nominated to Sicily for B.C. 43, but did not go there, perhaps owing to the order of the Senate (meant to support Dec. Brutus) made on the 20th of December, B.C. 44, that all governors should retain their provinces till farther orders (Cic., ad Fam. xii. 22, 25).
[44] App., b. c. ii. 48.
[45] Cic., ad Att. xv. 7; xvi. 3.
[46] App., b. c. iv. 2; Dio, 46, 55.
[47] Sueton., Aug. 47. This probably means after his accession to sole power. According to Nicolas, § 11-12, he visited Africa with Cæsar in B.C. 45. See p. 13. There is no record, however, of his ever having been to Sardinia.
[48] App., b. c. v. 67. The hold of Sext. Pompeius on Sardinia was recognised in the “treaty” of Misenum made in B.C. 39 (Dio, 48, 36; App., b. c. v. 72).
[49] See Note 2, p. 24.
[50] Cicero, 3 Phil. § 26; ad Fam. xii. 22, 23, 30.
[51] Appian, b. c. iii. 85, 91.
[52] Appian, b. c. iv. 36, 53-56; v. 26; Dio, 48, 21-23. It seems impossible to reconcile Appian and Dio. The course of events here indicated agrees chiefly with Dio, whose account appears on the whole the more reasonable.
[53] Cæs., b. c. iii., 102.
[54] Id., b. Alex. 42.
[55] Drawn up by the commissioners after the fall of Corinth, B.C. 146.
[56] Cicero, ad Att. xi. 15; Cæsar, b. c. ii. 56, 106; Dio, 42, 14.
[57] Servius had fought against Cæsar at Pharsalia, though his son was with Cæsar. After the battle he retired to Samos and refused to continue the war. See Cicero, ad Fam. iv. 3, 4, 11, 12; vi. 6; xiii. 17, 19, 23, 25, 28.
[58] App., b. c. v. 72.
[59] Cicero, ad Fam. vi. 12; App., b. c. iii. 2.
[60] See Cicero, 13 Phil. 23 (Antony’s letter).
[61] P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther. See his letter to Cicero, ad Fam. xii. 14, 15.
[62] Cæs., b. Alex. 66: rebus omnibus provinciæ et finitimarum civitatum constitutis is all that we are told.
[63] Dio, 47, 26. Appian gives two accounts of Bassus. In the first he represents him as the real commander of the legions, while Sext. Iulius was the nominal chief. He, however, gives an alternative account more in accordance with that of Dio. See App., b. c. iii. 77; iv. 58, sq.
[64] Cicero, ad Att. xiv. 9.
[65] Id., ad Fam. xii. 11 (Cassius to Cicero); xii. 12.
[66] Cicero, ad Att. vi. 5; Valer. Max., vi. 1, 15.
[67] Cyrene with four other cities—Apollonia, Ptolemais, Arsinoe, Berenice—formed a Pentapolis. (Livy, Epit. 70.)
[68] App., b. c. I. iii. sq.; Sall., hist. fr. ii. 39.
[69] Vell. Pat., ii. 34; Dio, 36, 2; Iust. 39, 5; Livy, Epit. 100. The laws of Crete were left in force (Cic., Mur. § 74; pro Flacc. § 30).
[70] App., b. c. iii. 12, 16, 36; iv. 57; Dio, 47, 21.
[71] Cicero, 2 Phil. § 97.
[72] The possibility of these legions crossing to Italy had caused no little anxiety at Rome; Cicero, ad Att. xiv. 16.
[73] Cicero, ad Att. xv. 21.
[74] Suetonius (Iul. 83) says, “three-fourths”; so also does Nicolas Dam. 17 (τρία μέρη τῶν χρημάτων). But Livy (Ep. 116) says “one-half” (ex semisse). It is possible Livy may refer to the amount left when the legacy of 300 sesterces to each citizen was deducted. Nicolas seems to think, however, that this legacy was charged on the remaining fourth. Octavian certainly undertook to pay it, but then Pinarius and Pedius handed over their shares to him.
[75] Appian (b. c. ii. 147) says that the body itself was not seen during Antony’s laudatio, but that a wax figure was displayed which by some mechanical contrivance was made to revolve and show all the wounds.
[76] Nicolas (§ 17) would seem to send them straight to Antium. But from Cicero’s letters it is clear that Brutus at any rate went first to Lanuvium, ad Att. xiv. 10, 21; xv. 9. They seem to have gone to Antium towards the end of May or beginning of June.
[77] Suet., Aug. 25.
[78] The last being the adjectival form of his original name, in accordance with the usual custom in cases of adoption.
[79] Cicero, ad Att. xiv. 5, 10, 11, 12.
[80] Cicero, ad Att. xiv. 20, 21. Dio (45, 6) says that the introducing tribune was Tib. Canutius. But it seems probable that this refers to a second speech.
[81] Cic., ad Att. xv. 2. There is a singularly manly and frank letter from Matius to Cicero (ad Fam. xi. 28), defending his attachment to Cæsar and his services to Octavian.
[82] Appian, b. c. 3, 20, τῶν προσόδων ἐξ οὗ παρῆλθεν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐς αὐτὸν ἀντὶ τοῦ ταμιείου συμφερομένων. The sole management of the Treasury had been committed to Cæsar in B.C. 45 (Dio, 43, 44, τἁ δημόσια χρήματα μόνον διοικεῖν). He had taken it out of the hands of the quæstors and appointed two præfecti to manage it: but it does not seem that they had anything to do with the money in the temple of Ops, as to which there was some doubt as to its being “public money” in the ordinary sense.
[83] Cicero, 1 Phil. § 17; 2 Phil. § 93.
[84] Cicero, in 2 Phil. § 93, seems to assume that Antony had taken the money all at once. But from Cicero’s own letters it would seem that the process of despoiling the temple of Ops was a gradual one, and that the use made of the money by Antony was more or less a matter of conjecture. On the 27th of April he writes: “You mention plundering going on at the temple of Ops. I, too, was a witness to that at the time” (ad Att. xiv. 14). On the 7th of May he says that Dolabella had a great share of it (ad Att. xiv. 18). In November he says that his nephew Quintus knew all about it, and meant to reveal it to the public (ad Att. xvi. 14). Appian (b. c. iii. 20) makes Antony say to Octavian: “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—except Dolabella and my brothers—divided up the whole of it as the property of a tyrant.”
[85] Cic., ad Att. xvi. 8.
[86] Dio, 45, 6; this seems a different case from that mentioned by App., b. c. iii. 47, and referred to by Cicero, ad Att. xvi. 15, as happening later in this same year.
[87] See ante p. 14: Dio, 45, 2; Sueton., Aug. 2, 10; Tac., Ann. xi. 25.
[88] Dio, 45, 4; Cicero, ad Att. xv. 3.
[89] Cicero, 2 Phil. § 100; ad Att. xiv. 20, 21.
[90] Id., ad Att. xiv. 3 (9th April); xv. 4 (24th May); 2 Phil. § 108; Appian, b. c. iii. 5. The Senate had been induced to vote him a bodyguard. See the letter of Brutus and Cassius to Antony in Cicero, ad Fam. xi. 2.
[91] Dio, 45, 10; Cic., ad Att. xvi. 1. The negotiation after all fell through on the question of Sextus’s recovering the actual house and property of his father, much of which was in Antony’s hands (Cic., ad Att. xvi. 4; Dio, 45, 9). He refused to accept a mere money compensation. Eventually, when the Senate had broken with Antony, it made terms with Sextus, appointing him commander of the naval forces of the Republic. Consequently he was proscribed by the Triumvirs. App., b. c. iii. 4.
[92] Cic., ad Att. xv. 10, 11.
[93] Cicero (2 Phil. § 109) declares that Antony’s bodyguard was stationed round the Senate—some of them being foreign mercenaries—and that his opponents therefore did not venture to enter the house.
[94] Appian, b. c. iii. 29-30. But Appian in regard to the order of events here is very confused and often wrong.
[95] Cicero, ad Att. xvi. 4, 5.
[96] Id., 1 Phil. § 14; ad Att. xvi. 7; ad Fam. xii. 2.
[97] Nicolas (§ 30), Appian (b. c. iii. 39), Plutarch (Ant. 16), acquit Augustus. The two writers who adopt Cicero’s view of the truth of the accusation are Seneca (de Clement. 1, 9, 1) and Suetonius (Aug. 10). See Cicero, ad Fam. xii. 23.
[98] ad Att. xv. 12.
[99] See ante, p. 3.
[100] He had the title Imperator inherited from Cæsar (Dio, 43, 44); but this was a mere honorary title, and could not be held to give imperium. He was careful to use it however, as in the inscription recording the formation of the triumvirate.... EMILIVS M. ANTONIVS. IMP. CÆSAR. III VIR R.P.C. A.D. IV KAL. DEC. AD. PRID. KAL. IAN. SEXT....
[101] Monum. Ancyr. I, annos undeviginti natus exercitum privato consilio et privata impensa comparavi: per quem rem publicam dominatione factionis oppressam in libertatem vindicavi. Compare Cæsar, b. civ. 1, 22, ut se et Populum Romanum factione paucorum oppressum in libertatem vindicaret.
[102] Cicero, ad Att. xvi. 8 and 9.
[103] Id., ad Fam. xii. 23.
[104] App., b. c. iii. 43-45; Cic., 3 Phil. § 10; Dio, 45, 13.
[105] Cic., ad Att. xvi. 10, 13 a, 13 b, 14.
[106] Id., 3 Phil. § 19.
[107] pestifera, 13 Phil. § 19.
[108] Cicero, 3 Phil. §§ 19-27; 5 Phil. § 23; 13 Phil. § 19; App., b. c. iii. 45.
[109] Cic., ad Att. xvi. 11.
[110] Id. xvi. 14.
[111] Id. xvi. 15. It seems from Appian (b. c. iii. 31) that Octavian was not a candidate, but he was generally supposed to wish it, and that therefore many were going to vote for him. He ostensibly supported another candidate—Flaminius. Antony stopped the election on the ground that there was no need to fill up a vacancy so late in the year. This settled the question. But it is doubtful whether this does not refer to an earlier occasion.
[112] Cicero, ad Att. xvi. 15, 3.
[113] Id., ad Fam. xi. 6; 3 Phil. §§ 37-39.
[114] The passages are Cicero, 5 Phil. §§ 45-47; 11 Phil. § 20; 13 Phil. § 39; Monum. Ancyr. § 3; Livy, Ep. 118; C. I. L. x. 8375; Suet., Aug. 10, 26. Dio (40, 29) says that he was in the Senate ἐν τοῖς τεταμιευκόσι—inter quæstorios. This may be a misunderstanding of Cicero’s proposal that for purposes of election he was to count as having been quæstor. The rank of proprætor was necessary for his command in the army, not for his entrance into the Senate.
[115] Pollio in Bætica, Lepidus in Gallia Narbonensis and Hispania Citerior, and Plancus in Northern Gaul.
[116] Laudandum, ornandum, tollendum (Cic., ad Fam. xi. 20, 21). This epigram seems to have been inspired by the exultant hopes roused by the news of the battle of Forum Gallorum.
[117] Monum. Ancyr. § 1, respublica ne quid detrimenti caperet me pro prætore cum consulibus providere iussit. This was a general order, neither Antony nor any particular hostis being named.
[118] Octavian first assumed the fasces (symbol of imperium) on the 7th of January (C. I. L. x. 8375.)
[119] Cicero, 8 Phil. §§ 25-28.
[120] The letter is preserved in the 13th Philippic, with Cicero’s bitter comments. It dwells on the favours and honours voted to the chief assassins, as well as the abolition of many of Cæsar’s acta. Antony also asserts that Lepidus and Plancus are on his side and warns Octavian that Cicero is playing him false.
[121] The country is very flat, but was intersected by drains and watercourses, making military evolutions difficult, if not impossible, in the rainy season. (App., b. c. 3, 65.)
[122] Such as the cavalry engagement between Pontius Aquila and Tib. Munatius Plancus at Pollentia (Dio, 46, 38). Octavian also suffered some loss by the desertion of some Gallic cavalry (ib. 37).
[123] Cic., ad Brutum, ii. 2.
[124] In enrolling legions Bassus was probably justified by the SCtum ultimum, which included the prætors. He was known to be a supporter of Antony, and might be thought capable of occupying Rome in his interest. We shall see afterwards that he joined him in Cisalpine Gaul. Some rumour of his being likely to act in this way had been rife before January 1st, when he was only prætor-designate. (See Cic., ad Att. xvi. 1; ad Brut. i. 3.)
[125] Cicero says of Octavian that he secundum proelium fecit because he castra multarum legionum paucis cohortibus tutatus est (14 Phil. § 28). The attack on the camp is not mentioned elsewhere (ib. § 37). For his being greeted as Imperator see C. I. L. ix. 8375.
[126] Cic., ad Brut. 1, 3, 5.
[127] Suet., Aug. 11; Cic., ad Brut. i. 6.
[128] Cic., ad Fam. xi. 21.
[129] Dio, 46, 41; Livy, Ep. 118.
[130] Cic., ad Brut. i. 15.
[131] Id., ad Fam. xi. 20, 21, see ante p. 52.
[132] Id., ad Brut. i. 4; App., b. c. iii. 82; Dio, 46, 42; Plut., Cic. 46. There was evidently some rumour of Cicero intending to be consul, though he speaks with rather affected indignation of Octavian wishing to be elected also (ad Brut. i. 10).
[133] Cic., ad Brut. 1, 3.