In this way and for the reasons mentioned did the soldiers receive the money on that occasion. But some of them got a wrong idea of the matter and thought it was compulsory for absolutely all the citizen forces at all times to be given the twenty-five hundred denarii, if they went to Rome under arms. For this reason the followers of Severus who had come to the city to overthrow Julianus behaved most terrifyingly both to their leader himself and to us, while demanding it. And they were won over by Severus with two hundred and fifty denarii, while people in general were ignorant what claim was being set up.
[-47-] Caesar while giving the soldiers the money also expressed to them his fullest and sincerest thanks. He did not even venture to enter the senate-chamber without a guard of them. To the senate he showed gratitude, but it was all fictitious and pretended. For he was accepting as if it were a favor received from willing hands what he had attained by violence. And they actually took great credit to themselves for their behavior, as if they had given him the office voluntarily; and moreover they granted to him whom previously they had not even wished to choose consul the right after his term expired to be honored, as often as he should be in camp, above all those who were consuls at one time or another. To him on whom they had threatened to inflict penalties, because he had gathered forces on his own responsibility without the passing of any vote, they assigned the duty of collecting others: and to the man for whose disenfranchisement and overthrow they had ordered Decimus to fight with Antony they added Decimus's legions. Finally he obtained the guardianship of the city, so that he was able to do everything that he wished according to law, and he was adopted into Caesar's family in the regular way, as a consequence changing his name. He had, as some think, been even before this accustomed to call himself Caesar, as soon as this name was bequeathed to him together with the inheritance. He was not, however, exact about his title, nor did he use the same one in dealing with everybody until at this time he had ratified it in accordance with ancestral custom, and was thus named, after his famous predecessor, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. For it is the custom when a person is adopted for him to take most of his appellation from his adopter but to keep one of his previous names slightly altered in form. This is the status of the matter, but I shall call him not Octavianus but Caesar, because this name has prevailed among all such as secure dominion over the Romans. He took another one in addition, namely Augustus, and therefore the subsequent emperors assume it. That one will be given when it comes up in the history, but until then the title Caesar will be sufficient to show that Octavianus is indicated.
[-48-] This Caesar, then, as soon as he had conciliated the soldiers and enslaved the senate, turned himself to avenging his father's murder. As he was afraid of somehow causing an upheaval among the populace in the pursuit of this business he did not make known his intention until he had seen to the payment of the bequests made to them. When they had been made docile by means of the money, although it belonged to the public funds and had been collected on the pretext of war, then at length he began to follow up the assassins. In order that this procedure of his might not appear to be characterized by violence but by justice, he proposed a law about their trial and tried the cases in their absence. The majority of them were out of town and some even held governorships over provinces. Those who were present also did not come forward, by reason of fear, and withdrew unobserved. Consequently they were convicted by default, and not only those who had been the actual murderers of Caesar and their fellow-conspirators, but many others who so far from plotting against Caesar, had not even been in the city at the time. This action was directed chiefly against Sextus Pompey. The latter though he had had no share whatever in the attack was nevertheless condemned because he had been an enemy. Those adjudged guilty were debarred from fire and water and their property was confiscated. The provinces,—not only those which some of them were governing, but all the rest,—were committed to the friends of Caesar.
[-49-] Among those held liable was also Publius Servilius Casca, the tribune. He had suspected Caesar's purpose in advance, before he entered the city, and had quietly slipped away. For this act he was at once removed from his office, on the charge of having left the city contrary to precedent, by the populace convened by his colleague Publius Titius; and in this way he was condemned. When Titius not long after died, the proverbial fate that had been observed from of old was once more in evidence. No one up to that time who had expelled a colleague had lived the year out: but first Brutus after the expulsion of Collatinus died in his turn, then Gracchus was stabbed after expelling Octavius, and Cinna who put Marullus and Flavus out of the way not long after perished. This has been the general experience.
Now the assassins of Caesar had many accusers who were anxious to ingratiate themselves with his son, and many who were persuaded so to act by the rewards offered. They received money from the estate of the convicted man and the latter's honors and office, if he had any, and exemption from further service in the army, applicable to themselves and their children and grandchildren. Of the jurors the majority voted against the accused out of fear of Caesar and a wish to please him, generally hinting that they were justified in doing this. Some cast their votes in consideration of the law enacted about punishing the culprits, and others in consideration of the arms of Caesar. And one, Silicius Corona, a senator, voted outright to acquit Marcus Brutus. He made a great boast of this at the time and secretly received approval from the rest: that he was not immediately put to death gained for Caesar a great reputation for toleration, but later he was executed as the result of a proscription.
[-50-] After accomplishing this Caesar's next step was naturally a campaign against Lepidus and Antony. Antony on fleeing from the battle described had not been pursued by Caesar on account of the war being entrusted to Decimus; and the latter had not pursued because he did not wish a rival to Caesar to be removed from the field. Hence the fugitive collected as many as he could of the survivors of the battle and came to Lepidus, who had made preparations to march himself into Italy in accordance with the decree, but had again been ordered to remain where he was. For the senators, when they ascertained that Silanus had embraced Antony's cause, were afraid that Lepidus and Lucius Plancus might also coöperate with him, and sent to them to say that they had no further need of them. To prevent their suspecting anything ulterior and consequently causing trouble they ordered them to help in building homes for the men once driven out of Vienna (in Gallia Narbonensis) by the Allobroges and then located between the Rhone and the Arar, at their confluence. Therefore they submitted, and founded the so-called Lugudunum, now known as Lugdunum. They might have entered Italy with their arms, had they wished, for the decrees by this time exerted a very weak influence upon such as had troops, but, with an eye to the outcome of the war Antony was conducting, they wished to appear to have yielded obedience to the senate and incidentally to strengthen their position. [-51-] Indeed, Lepidus censured Silanus severely for making an alliance with Antony, and when the latter himself came would not hold conversation with him immediately, but sent a despatch to the senate containing an accusation of his own against him, and for this stand he received praise and command of the war against Antony. Hence the first part of the time he neither admitted Antony nor repelled him, but allowed him to be near and to associate with his followers; he would not, however, hold a conference with him. But when he ascertained Antony's agreement with Caesar, he then came to terms with both of them himself. Marcus Juventius,[24] his lieutenant, learned what was being done and at first tried to alter his purpose; then, when he did not succeed in persuading him, he made away with himself in the sight of the soldiers. For this the senate voted eulogies and a statue to Juventius and a public funeral, but Lepidus they deprived of his image which stood upon the rostra and made him an enemy. They also set a certain day for his comrades and threatened them with war if they should not abandon him before that day. Furthermore they changed their clothing again,—they had resumed citizen's apparel in honor of Caesar's consulship,—and summoned Marcus Brutus and Cassius and Sextus to proceed against them. When the latter seemed likely to be too slow in responding, they committed the war to Caesar, being ignorant of the conspiracy existing. [-52-] He nominally received it, in spite of having made his soldiers give voice to a sentiment previously mentioned,[25] but accomplished no corresponding results. This was not because he had formed a compact with Antony and through him with Lepidus,—little he cared for that fact,—but because he saw they were powerful and knew their purposes were linked by the bands of kinship, and he could not use force with them; and besides he cherished hopes of bringing about through them the downfall of Cassius and Brutus, who were already very influential, and subsequently of wearing them out one against the other. Accordingly, even against his will he kept his covenant with them and directed his efforts to effecting a reconciliation for them with the senate and with the people. He did not himself propose the matter, lest some suspicion of what had really taken place should arise, but he set out as if to make war on them, while Quintus urged, as if it were his own idea, that amnesty and restoration be granted them. He did not secure this, however, until the senate had communicated it to the supposedly ignorant Caesar and he had unwillingly agreed to it, compelled, as he alleged, by the soldiers.
[-53-] While this was being done Decimus at first set forth in the intention of making war upon the pair, and associated with him Lucius Planeus, since the latter had been appointed in advance as his colleague for the following year. Learning, however, of his own condemnation and of their reconciliation he wished to lead a campaign against Caesar, but was abandoned by Plancus who favored the cause of Lepidus and Antony. Then he decided to leave Gaul and hasten into Macedonia on land through Illyricum to Marcus Brutus, and sent ahead some of the soldiers while he was engaged in finishing some business he had in hand. But they embraced Caesar's cause, and the rest were pursued by Lepidus and Antony and then were won over through the agency of others. So, being deserted, he was seized by a personal foe. When he was about to be executed he complained and lamented so loudly that one Helvius Blasio, who was kindly disposed to him from association on campaigns, in his sight voluntarily slew himself first.
[-54-] So Decimus afterward died also. Antony and Lepidus left lieutenants in Gaul and themselves proceeded to join Caesar in Italy, taking with them the larger and the better part of their armies. They did not trust him very far and wished not to owe him any favor, but to seem to have obtained amnesty and restoration on their own merits and by their own strength, and not through him. They also hoped to become masters of whatever they desired, of Caesar and the rest in the City, by the size of their armies. With such a feeling they marched through the country, according it friendly treatment. Still, it was damaged by their numbers and audacity no less than if there had been a war. They were met near Bononia by Caesar with many soldiers: he was exceedingly well prepared to defend himself against them, if they should offer any violence. Yet at this time he found no need of arms to oppose them. They really hated one another bitterly, but because they had just about equal forces and desired one another's assistance to take vengeance first on the rest of their enemies, they entered upon a simulated agreement. [-55-] They came together to confer, not alone but bringing an equal number of soldiers, on a little island in the river that flows past Bononia, with the understanding that no one else should be present on either side. First they withdrew to a distance from the various followers and searched one another carefully to make sure that no one had a dagger hidden under his arm. Then they considered at leisure different points and in general made a solemn compact for securing sovereignty and overthrowing enemies. But to prevent its appearing that they were headed straight toward an oligarchy and so envy and opposition arise on the part of the people at large, the three were to be chosen in common as a kind of commissioners and correctors for the administration and settlement of affairs. This office was not to be perpetual, but for five years, under the general proviso that they should manage all questions, whether they made any communication about them to the people and the senate or not, and give the offices and other honors to whomsoever they pleased. The private arrangement, however, in order that they should not be thought to be appropriating the entire sovereignty, was that both Libyas, Sardinia, and Sicily should be given to Caesar, all of Spain and Gallia Narbonensis to Lepidus, and the rest of Gaul south and north of the Alps to Antony to rule. The former was called Gallia Togata, as I have said, because it seemed to be more peaceful than the other divisions, and because the dwellers there already employed Roman citizen-garb: the other was termed Gallia Comata because the Gauls there mostly let their hair grow long, and were in this way distinguished from the others. [-56-] So they made these allotments, for the purpose of securing the strongest provinces themselves and giving others the impression that they were not striving for the whole. A further agreement was that they should cause assassinations of their enemies, that Lepidus after being appointed consul in Decimus's stead should keep guard over Rome and the remainder of Italy, and that the others should make an expedition against Brutus and Cassius. They also pledged themselves to this course by oath. After this, in order to let the soldiers hear and be witnesses of the terms they had made, they called them together and made known to them in advance all that it was proper and safe to tell them. Meanwhile the soldiers of Antony, of course at the latter's direction, committed to Caesar's charge the daughter of Fulvia (Antony's wife), whom she had by Clodius,—and this in spite of Caesar's being already betrothed to another. He, however, did not refuse her; for he did not think this inter-marriage would hinder him at all in the designs which he had against Antony. Among other points for his reflection was his knowledge that his father Caesar had not failed to carry out all of his plans against Pompey, in spite of the relationship between the two.