[157] According to Appian (b. c. iii. 97), Pollio for some time declined to join Antony and Lepidus. He seems to have done so when their outlawry was removed.
[158] Decimus Brutus first tried to reach Ravenna, hoping to sail to Macedonia and join M. Brutus. Headed back by Cæsar’s advance, he recrossed the Alps (being gradually deserted by his men) and trusted himself to a Gaul, who had received favours from him of old. But his host communicated with Antony, and by his orders put him to death. There were other versions of his death. Perhaps neither Antony nor Cæsar cared to ask questions so long as he was dead. (App., b. c. iii. 97-98; Dio, 46, 53; Velleius Pat., ii. 64; Livy, Ep. 120.)
[159] Plancus did not accompany Antony into Italy; he stayed in Gaul, busying himself with the foundation of Lugdunum, and apparently suppressing some movements in the Eastern Alps, for at the end of the year coming home to enter on his consulship, he celebrated a triumph ex Rhætis [Inscrip. Neap., 4089; Fast. Capitol. 29 Dec. A. V. 711.] Pollio, who had presently to assent to the proscription of his father-in-law, L. Quintius, was left in charge of Transpadane Gaul, to arrange for lands for the veterans. It was in this business that he came across Vergil and his farm.
[160] Daughter of Fulvia by her first husband, P. Clodius.
[161] Plut., Ant. 19; App., b. c. iv. 6; Dio, 46, 44.
[162] The usual interval (tres nundinæ) for promulgatio was dispensed with.
[163] Appian, b. c. iv. 5; Livy, Ep. 120. Of the 69 names given by Appian, he records the escape of 31. This tallies roughly with the discrepancy between his and Livy’s reckoning.
[164] Appian, b. c. iv. 36.
[165] Suet., Aug. 27.
[166] Dio, 47, 14.