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.
DIO'S
ROMAN HISTORY
47
The following is contained in the Forty-seventh of Dio's Rome:
How Caesar, Antony, and Lepidus came to Rome and instituted a reign of
slaughter (chapters 1-19).
About Brutus and Cassius and what they did before the battle of Philippi
(chapters 20-36).
How Brutus and Cassius were defeated by Caesar and perished (chapters
37-49).
Duration of time, the remainder of the consulship of Gaius Vibius Pansa
and Aulus Hirtius, together with one additional year, in which there were
the following magistrates here enumerated:
M. Aemilius M.F. Lepidus cos. (II), L. Munatius L.F. Plancus. (B.C. 42 =
a. u. 712.)
(_BOOK 47, BOISSEVAIN._)
[B.C. 43 (_a. u._ 711)]
[-1-] After forming these compacts and taking mutual oaths they hastened
to Rome under the assumption that they were all going to rule on equal
terms, but each one had the intention of getting the entire power
himself. Yet they had learned in advance very clearly before this, but
most plainly at this time, what would be the future. In the case of
Lepidus a serpent coiled about a centurion's sword and a wolf that
entered his camp and his tent while he was eating dinner and knocked
down the table indicated at once power and disappointment as a result of
power: in that of Antony milk flowing about the ramparts and a kind of
chant echoing about at night signified gladness of heart and destruction
succeeding it. These portents befell them before they entered Italy. In
Caesar's case at the very time after the covenant had been made an eagle
settled upon his tent and killed two crows that attacked it and tried to
pluck out its feathers,--a sign which granted him victory over his two
rivals.
[-2-] So they came to Rome, first Caesar, then the others, each one
separately, with all their soldiers, and immediately through the tribunes
enacted such laws as pleased them. The orders they gave and force that
they used thus acquired the name of law and furthermore brought them
supplications; for they required to be besought earnestly when they were
to pass any measures. Consequently sacrifices were voted for them as
if for good fortune and the people changed their attire as if they had
secured prosperity, although they were considerably terrified by the
transactions and still more by omens. For the standards of the army
guarding the city were covered with spiders, and weapons were seen
reaching up from earth to heaven while a great din resounded from them,
and in the shrines of Aesculapius bees gathered in numbers on the roof and
crowds of vultures settled on the temple of the Genius Populi and on that
of Concord. [-3-] And while these conditions still remained practically
unchanged, those murders by proscription which Sulla had once caused were
put into effect and the whole city was filled with corpses. Many were
killed in their houses, many in the streets, and scattered about in the
fora and near the temples: the heads of such were once more attached to
the rostra and their trunks flung out to be devoured by the dogs and
birds or cast into the river. Everything that had been done before in
the days of Sulla found a counterpart at this time, except that only two
white tablets were posted, one for the senators and one for the rest. The
reason for this I have not been able to learn from any one else nor to
find out myself. The cause which one might have imagined, that fewer were
put to death, is least of all true: for many more names were listed,
because there were more leaders concerned. In this respect, then, the
case differed from the murders that had earlier taken place: but that the
names of those prominent were not posted with the rabble, but separately,
appeared very nonsensical to the men who were to be murdered in the same
way. Besides this no few other very unpleasant conditions fell to their
lot, although the former régime, one would have said, had left nothing to
be surpassed. [-4-] But in Sulla's time those guilty of such murderous
measures had some excuse in their very hardihood: they were trying the
method for the first time, and not with set intentions; hence in most
cases they behaved less maliciously, since they were acting not according
to definite plans but as chance dictated. And the victims, succumbing
to sudden and unheard of catastrophes, found some alleviation in the
unexpectedness of their experience. At this time, on the other hand,
they were executing in person or beholding or at least understanding
thoroughly by fresh descriptions merely deeds that had been dared before;
in the intervals, expecting a recurrence of similar acts, some were
inventing various new methods to employ, and others were becoming
afflicted by new fears that they too should suffer. The perpetrators
resorted to most unusual devices in their emulation of the outrages of
yore and their consequent eagerness to add, through the resources of art,
novel features to their attempts. The others reflected on all that they
might suffer and hence even before their bodies were harmed their spirits
were thoroughly on the rack, as if they were already undergoing the
trial. [-5-] Another reason for their faring worse on this occasion than
before was that previously only Sulla's own enemies and the foes of the
leaders associated with him were destroyed: among his friends and the
people in general no one perished at his bidding; so that except the very
wealthy,--and these can never be at peace with the stronger element
at such a time,--the remainder took courage. In this second series of
assassinations, however, not only the men's enemies or the rich were
being killed, but also their best friends and quite without looking for
it. On the whole it may be said that almost nobody had incurred the
enmity of those men from any private cause that should account for
his being slain by them. Politics and compromises regarding posts of
authority had created both their friendships and their violent hatreds.
All those that had aided or assisted one of the group in any way the
others held in the light of an enemy. So it came about that the same
persons had become friends to some one of them, and enemies to the entire
body, so that while each was privately quelling his antagonists, they
destroyed the dearest friends of all in general. In the course of their
joint negotiations[26] they made a kind of account of who was on their
side and who was opposed, and no one was allowed to take vengeance on one
of his own enemies who was a friend of another without giving up some
friend in his turn: and because of their anger over what was past and
their suspicion of the future they cared nothing about the preservation
of an associate in comparison with vengeance on an adversary, and so gave
them up without much protest. [-6-] Thus they offered one another staunch
friends for bitter enemies and implacable foes for close comrades; and
sometimes they exchanged even numbers, at others several for one or fewer
for more, altogether carrying on the transactions as if at a market, and
overbidding one another as at an auction room. If some one was found just
equivalent to another and the two were ranked alike, the exchange was a
simple one; but all whose value was raised by some excellence or esteem
or relationship could be despatched only in return for several. As there
had been civil wars, lasting a long time and embracing many events, not
a few men during the turmoil had come into collision with their nearest
relatives. Indeed, Lucius Caesar, Antony's uncle, had become his enemy,
and Lepidus's brother, Lucius Paulus, hostile to him. The lives of these
were saved, but many of the rest were slaughtered even in the houses of
their very friends and relatives, from whom they especially expected
protection and honor. And in order that no person should feel less
inclined to kill any one out of fear of being deprived of the rewards
(remembering that in the time of Sulla Marcus Cato, who was quaestor, had
demanded of some of the murderers all they had received for their
work), they proclaimed that the name of no proscribed person should be
registered in the public records. On this account they slew ordinary
citizens more readily and made away with the prosperous, even though they
had no dislike for a single one of them. For since they stood in need
of vast sums of money and had no other source from which to satisfy the
desire of their soldiers, they affected a kind of common enmity against
the rich. Among the other transgressions they committed in the line of
this policy was to declare a mere child of age, so that they might kill
him as already exercising the privileges of a man.
[-7-] Most of this was done by Lepidus and Antony. They had been honored
by the former Caesar for a very long time and as they had been in office
and holding governorships most of the period they had many enemies. It
appeared as if Caesar had a part in the business merely because of his
sharing the authority, for he himself was not at all anxious to kill any
large number. He was not naturally cruel and had been brought up in
his father's ways. Moreover, as he was young and had just entered the
political arena, there was no inevitable necessity for his bitterly
hating many persons, and he wished to have people's affection. This is
indicated by the fact that from the time he broke off his joint rulership
with his colleagues and held the power alone he did nothing of the sort.
And at this time he not only refrained from destroying many but preserved
a large number. Those also who betrayed their masters or friends he
treated most harshly and those who helped anybody most leniently. An
instance of it occurs in the case of Tanusia, a woman of note. She
concealed her husband Titus Vinius, who was proscribed, at first in a
chest at the house of a freedman named Philopoemen[27] and so made it
appear that he had been killed. Later she waited for a national festival,
which a relative of hers was to direct, and through the influence of his
sister Octavia brought it about that Caesar alone of the three entered the
theatre. Then she sprang up and informed him of the deception, of which
he was still ignorant, brought in the very chest and led from it her
husband. Caesar, astonished, released all of them (death being the penalty
also for such as concealed any one) and enrolled Philopoemen among the
knights.
[-8-] He, then, saved the lives of as many as he could. Lepidus allowed
his brother Paulus to escape to Miletus and toward others was not
inexorable. But Antony killed savagely and relentlessly not only those
whose names had been posted, but likewise those who had attempted to
assist any of them. He had their heads in view when he happened to be
eating and sated himself to the fullest extent on this most unholy and
pitiable sight. Fulvia also put to death many herself both by reason of
enmity and on account of their money, and some with whom her husband was
not acquainted. When he saw the head of one man, he exclaimed: "I didn't
know about him!" Cicero's head also being brought to them (he had been
overtaken and slain while trying to flee), Antony uttered many bitter
reproaches against him and then ordered it to be exposed on the rostra
more prominently than the rest, in order that he might be seen in the
place from which he used to be heard inveighing against him,--together
with his right hand, just as it had been cut off. Before it was taken
away Fulvia took it in her hands and after abusing it spitefully and
spitting upon it, set it on her knees, opened the mouth, and pulled out
the tongue, which she pierced with the brooches that she used for her
hair, at the same time uttering many brutal jests. Yet even this pair
saved some persons from whom they got more money than they could expect
to obtain by their death. But in order that the places for their names
on the tablets might not be empty, they inscribed others in their stead.
Except that Antony did release his uncle at the earnest entreaty of his
mother Julia he performed no other praiseworthy act.
[-9-] For these causes the murders had great variety of detail, and the
rescues that fell to the lot of some were of many kinds. Numbers were
ruined by their most intimate friends, and numbers were saved by their
most inveterate foes. Some slew themselves and others were given freedom
by the very pursuers, who approached as if to murder them. Some who
betrayed masters or friends were punished and others were honored for
this very reason: of those who helped others to survive some paid the
penalty and others received rewards. Since there was not one man but
three, who were acting in all cases each according to his own desire and
for his private advantage, and since the same persons were not enemies or
friends of the whole group, since, also, two of them might be anxious for
some one to be saved whom the third wished to destroy, or for some one
to perish whom the third wished to survive, many complicated situations
resulted, according as they felt good-will or hatred toward any one.
[-10-] I, accordingly, shall omit an accurate and detailed description of
all the events,--it would be a vast undertaking and would not add much
to the history,--but shall relate what I deem to be most worthy of
remembrance. Here is one.
A slave had hidden his master in a cave, and then, when even so through
another's information he was likely to perish, this slave changed clothes
with him and wearing his master's apparel confronted the pursuers as the
man himself and was slain. So they were turned aside, thinking they had
despatched the desired man, but he when they had departed made his escape
to some other place.
Or a second. Another slave had likewise changed his entire accoutrement
with his master, and entered a covered litter which he made the other
help to carry. When they were overtaken the one in the litter was killed
without being even looked at, and the master, as a baggage-carrier,
was saved. Those services were rendered by those servants to their
benefactors in return for some kindness previously received.
There was also a branded runaway who so far from betraying the man who
had branded him very willingly preserved him. He was detected in carrying
him away and was being pursued, when he killed somebody who met him by
chance and gave the latter's clothes to his master. Having then placed
him upon a pyre he himself took his master's clothing and ring and going
to meet the pursuers pretended that he had killed the man while fleeing.
Because of his spoils and the marks of the branding he was believed and
both saved the person in question and was himself honored.
The names connected with the above anecdotes have not been preserved.
But in the case of Hosidius Greta his son arranged a funeral for him as
though already dead and preserved him in that way. Quintus Cicero, the
brother of Marcus, was secretly led away by his child and saved, so far
as his rescuer's responsibility went. The boy concealed his father so
well that he could not be discovered and when tormented for it by all
kinds of torture did not utter a syllable. His father, learning what was
being done, was filled at once with admiration and pity for the boy,
and therefore came voluntarily to view and surrendered himself to the
slayers.