BOOK CXVII.
Caius Octavius came to Rome from Epirus, whither Cæsar had sent him to conduct the war in Macedonia; and, having received favourable omens, assumed the name of Cæsar. In the confusion and bustle of affairs, Lepidus procured the office of chief priest. But when Marcus Antonius, the consul, governed with violence, and forcibly caused a law to be passed respecting the change of provinces; and had also given very injurious treatment to Cæsar, when he requested that he would assist him in punishing the murderers of his uncle; Cæsar, to strengthen himself and the commonwealth against him, called out the veteran soldiers, who had been settled in the colonies. The fourth and Martian legions also deserted from Antony to Cæsar. Afterwards also very many revolted to Caasar, on account of the cruelty of Antony, who slaughtered every where in their own camps even those whom he suspected. Decimus Brutus, in order to stop Antonius on his way into Cisalpine Gaul, seized Mutina with his army. This book contains also the history of the attempts of both parties to possess themselves of the provinces, and of the preparations for war.
BOOK CXVIII.
Marcus Brutus, in Greece, under the pretext of supporting the commonwealth, and the war against Antonius, managed to get the command of Vatinius’ army and province. [y. r. 709. b. c. 43.] To Cæsar, who had first undertaken to defend the commonwealth by arms, was given the authority of proprætor, with consular ornaments by the senate, and it was added that he should be enrolled a senator. Marcus Antonius besieged Brutus at Mutina; and the ambassadors sent to him by the senate, with a treaty of peace, met with little success in effecting it. The people of Rome assumed the military habit. Marcus Brutus reduced under his power Caius Antonius, the prætor, together with the army which he commanded in Epirus.
BOOK CXIX.
By the treachery of Publius Dolabella, Caius Trebonius was slain in Asia: for which crime the senate voted Dolabella to be a public enemy. When Pansa, one of the consuls, had fought unsuccessfully against Antony, Aulus Hirtius, the other consul, coming up with his army, equalized the fortune of either party, the forces of Antony being routed. Antonius, afterwards being conquered by Hirtius and Cæsar, fled into Gaul, and joined to himself Marcus Lepidus, together with the legions which were under him, and was declared a public enemy by the senate, together with all his associates. Aulus Hirtius, who, after his victory, was slain in the enemy’s camp, and Lucius Pansa, who died of a wound received in an unsuccessful battle, were buried in the Campus Martius. To Cæsar, the only surviving general of the three, the senate showed but little gratitude; for a triumph was voted to Decimus Brutus, who was relieved from the siege of Mutina by Cæsar. They did not mention with sufficient gratitude Cæsar and his soldiers, wherefore Caius Cæsar, having, by the intervention of Marcus Lepidus, renewed his friendly relation with Marcus Antonius, came with his army to Rome, and those who had been unjust to him, being struck with dread at his approach, he was elected consul in his nineteenth year.