[9] Cf. Cic. (Phil. ii, 8, 20), “The senate gave Gaius Cæsar the fasces.” Cf. Tac. Ann. I, 10; Livy, Ep. CXVIII.
[10] App. B. C. III, 51. Vell. II, 61.
[11] The formula by which in emergencies, extraordinary powers were given to the ordinary magistrates. This measure had since 216 B. C., entirely superseded the old custom of appointing a dictator. (Cf. note [32]) Chap. V. The present formula, however, had been employed long before the disuse of the dictatorship. Cf. Livy III, 4; VI, 19. This extraordinary commission was not restricted to the consuls. Cf. Cæs. B. C. I, 5.
[12] Hirtius was killed April 16, 711, and Pansa died of wounds received on the 15th, in the fighting against Antonius. Cæsar Octavianus and Q. Pedius were elected consuls Aug. 19, 711. Dio LVI, 30; C. I. L. I, p. 400 = x, 8375; Tac. Ann. I, 9; Suet. Aug. 100. Vell. (II, 65), says the election was on Sept. 22. But Macrobius, (Sat. I, 35, 25), assigns the fact that he was made consul in the month Sextilis, as one of the reasons why the name of that month was changed to August.
[13] C. I. L. 1, p. 466 and App. B. C. IV, 7, fix the formal ratification of the triumvirate by the people, as having been proposed by the tribune Publius Titius and carried in a public assembly on Nov. 27, 711.
[14] An instance of Augustus’ avoiding the names of his enemies; here, particularly, Brutus and Cassius.
[15] The Lex Pedia, Sept., 711, named from Augustus’ colleague in the consulship, constituted an extraordinary tribunal for this class of offenders: the penalty was interdiction from fire and water, i. e., outlawry. Livy, Ep. CXX; Vell. II, 69; App. III, 95; Suet. Aug. 10; Dio XLVI, 49.
[16] The only instance in the Res Gestae of a palpable distortion of fact. The battles at Philippi, in November, 712, are referred to. For the date see Gardthausen, Aug. 2er Th. 1er Halbband, p. 80. In the first fight, Suetonius says (Aug. 13), that Cæsar hardly escaped, ill and naked, from his camp to the wing of Antony’s army. He was ill, and had to be carried in a litter, according to Plutarch, Brut. p. 41. In Antony, 22, Plutarch says: “In the first battle, Cæsar was completely routed by Brutus, his camp taken, he himself very narrowly escaping by flight.” The decisive defeat of the Republicans was twenty days later.
[17] The text here is conjectural. Mommsen is almost alone in holding to “surviving,” Zumpt, in his edition of 1869, had read “suppliant” (supplicibus), Bergk, in 1873, “asking pardon” (deprecantibus). Hirschfeld, the same sense, (veniam petentibus). Seeck insists on the latter reading, in spite of Mommsen’s arguments for his own choice. Augustus did not spare all surviving citizens either after Philippi or Actium, cf. Dio LI, 2: After Actium “of the senators and knights, and other leading men, who in any way had helped Antony, he fined some, many he killed, some he spared.” For his conduct after Philippi, cf. Suet. Aug. 13. But a coin of 727 (Eckhel VI, 88, Cohen I, p. 66, No. 30), has Cæsar cos vii Civibus Servateis, “Cæsar for the seventh time consul, the citizens having been preserved.” It commemorates the civic crown given to Augustus, cf. c. XXXIV. There are other coins with Ob Cives Servatos, “On account of the preservation of the citizens.”
[18] This fact is one of the few which the latest text, based on Humann’s work, alone establishes. Merivale’s comment on the relation of Augustus to the army is noteworthy: “Their hero (Julius Cæsar) discarded the defence of the legions, and a few months witnessed his assassination. Augustus learned circumspection from the failure of his predecessor’s enterprise. He organized a military establishment of which he made himself the permanent head; to him every legionary swore personal fidelity; every officer depended upon his direct appointment.” (C. XXXII.)