Book 13

arg. The following are contained in the forty-eighth book of Dio's Roman History: How Caesar made war upon Fulvia and Lucius Antonius. How Sextus Pompey held Sicily. How the Parthians held the regions as far as the Hellespont. How Caesar and Antony came to terms with Sextus. How Publius Ventidius conquered the Parthians and won back Asia. How Caesar began to make war upon Sextus. Concerning Baiae. The length of time is five years, in which the magistrates here numbered held office: Lucius Antonius Pietas, son of Marcus, and Publius Servilius Isauricus, son of Publius, for the second time, consuls; Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus, son of Marcus, for the second time, and Gaius Asinius Pollio, son of Gnaeus, consuls; Lucius Marcius Censorinus, son of Lucius, and Gaius Calvisius Sabinus, son of Gaius, consuls; Appius Claudius Pulcher, son of Gaius, and Gaius Norbanus Flaccus, son of Gaius, consuls; Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, son of Lucius, and Lucius Caninius Gallus, son of Lucius, consuls.

1.1. Brutus, then, and Cassius thus perished, slain with the swords with which they had made away with Caesar; and the rest who had shared in the plot against him—some before, some then, some afterwards—were destroyed, save very few, as somehow justice required and the divine power led on, that they who had killed a man their benefactor, one who had advanced so far both in virtue and in fortune,

1.2. should suffer. And Caesar and Antony at once had the advantage over Lepidus, since he had not shared in their victory, and were destined before long to turn against one another also; for it is hard that three men, or even two, of equal honour, who have become masters of so great affairs out of war, should be of one mind.

1.3. And on this account all that until then they had accomplished by agreeing for the overthrow of those who opposed them, this they now began to make the prizes of their rivalry with one another. For they at once redistributed the empire, and to Caesar fell Spain and Numidia, to Antony Gaul and Africa; and they agreed that, should Lepidus make any complaint at this,

2.1. they would give up Africa to him. These alone they divided among themselves, because Sextus still held Sardinia and Sicily, while the rest of the regions outside Italy were still in turmoil. For about Italy I need say nothing, that it always remained exempt in such matters; for they made their speeches not as though about it, but as though contending on its

2.2. behalf. Leaving these things, then, in common, Antony took upon himself the settling of those who had made war against them and the raising of money for the sums promised to the soldiers, while Caesar took the curbing of Lepidus, should he make any movement, and the making war upon Sextus,

2.3. and the distributing of the land which they had promised to those who served with them to the men past the age for service, whom they at once discharged. And besides, the former sent with Antony two legions of his own following, while the latter promised to give him in return others, equal in number, from those then in Italy.

2.4. Having thus arranged these things apart, and written them down and sealed them, they exchanged the documents with one another, that, should any of them be transgressed, it might be proved from them; and after this Antony set off for Asia and Caesar for Italy.

3.1. And his sickness, both on the journey and in the voyage, pressed him strongly, so as even to give the men in Rome an impression of his death. Yet they did not so much suppose that it was by reason of his illness as for the preparation of some mischief that he was delaying, and on this account they suspected all that it was possible for them to suffer.

3.2. And yet they voted them many other things for the victory, which would surely have been granted to the other party too, had they prevailed (for in such cases all men ever run down the fallen and honour the victorious), and indeed they resolved to hold religious festivals during, so to speak, the whole year, even against their will; for this Caesar had bidden them do outright, for the vengeance on the

3.3. murderers. While he delayed, then, talk of all kinds was bruited about, and sufferings of all sorts resulted from it. For, among other things, some spread the report that he was dead, and brought pleasure to many, while others said that he was planning some evil,

3.4. and instilled fear into many. And on this account some hid away their goods and put themselves under guard, others considered whither at any time they might flee. Others—and these the greater number—not even able to devise anything through the violence of their fear, made ready as men who would in any case perish.

3.5. And short, and altogether scanty, was the courage that remained; for from the great and various destruction of both men and money that had gone before, there was nothing of the like or worse which they did not expect, inasmuch as they had been utterly subdued.

3.6. Whence Caesar too, fearing lest they make some innovation, especially as Lepidus was present, wrote to the senate, both exhorting it to be of good courage, and promising besides to do everything both mildly and humanely after the manner of his father.

4.1. At that time, then, these things happened; and in the following year, in name Publius Servilius and Lucius Antonius, but in deed both he and Fulvia, were consuls; for she, being mother-in-law of Caesar and wife of Antony, set Lepidus at naught for his sluggishness and herself administered affairs, so that neither the senate nor the people transacted anything else contrary to what seemed good to her.

4.2. At any rate, when Lucius himself was eager to send a triumph for certain who dwelt in the Alps, as though he had conquered them, for a while, since Fulvia opposed it, no one would grant it him, but when she, being courted,

4.3. consented, all voted it; so that in name Antony was said to celebrate it over those whom he claimed to have conquered (for he had done nothing worthy of a triumph, nor had he at all held a command in those regions), but in truth it was Fulvia who triumphed. At any rate she prided herself far more than he did, inasmuch as it was the truer claim;

4.4. for to give to anyone the power of sending a triumph was greater than to celebrate it after receiving it from another. Save that Lucius put on the triumphal array and mounted the chariot, and did the other things proper on such occasions, Fulvia herself was thought to be holding the festival, using him as her assistant.

4.5. It was held on the first day of the year. And over this Lucius prided himself on a par with Marius, because he had celebrated it on the new-moon day on which he began his consulship; and besides he gloried beyond him, saying that he himself of his own will had laid aside the ornaments of the procession and had assembled the senate in the dress of the Forum, whereas

4.6. Marius had done these things unwillingly. And he added that to Marius scarcely any crown, or none, was given, but that he himself received others, and from the people by tribes—a thing which had happened to none of the former men—both because of Fulvia and because of the money he had secretly spent on certain men.

5.1. In this year, then, Caesar came to Rome, and, having done what was customary for the victory, turned to the administration and conduct of affairs. For Lepidus, partly through fear of him and partly through the weakness of his judgement, made no innovation; and Lucius and Fulvia, as being his kinsmen and partners in the leadership, at first kept quiet.

5.2. But as time went on they came at variance—they, because they had no share in the portion of the land-allotment belonging to Antony, and he, because he did not receive the legions from them. And thereupon their kinship by marriage was dissolved, and they were brought to open war.

5.3. For Caesar, not bearing the harshness of his mother-in-law (for he wished to seem to be at variance with her rather than with Antony), sent away her daughter, as being still a maiden—a thing which he confirmed by oath—not shrinking either from the woman’s being thought to have remained so long a maiden with him, or, with a view to the preparation of what was to come, from its seeming that he had planned it long beforehand.

5.4. When this happened, they did nothing further in friendship, but Lucius, with Fulvia, took affairs into his hands as though doing this on Marcus’ behalf, and yielded to him in nothing (for, on account of his piety toward his brother, he gave himself the surname Pietas);

5.5. and Caesar made no charge, forsooth, against Marcus, lest he set against himself the peoples in Asia which he was governing, but accused these others and worked against them, as men who were doing everything against his judgement and were desiring a domination of their own.

6.1. And in the colonization lay the greatest hope of power for both parties, and on this account, beginning first about it, they came at variance. For Caesar himself wished to make it for all who had served with him and with Antony, according to the agreements that had been made among them after the victory, in order that

6.2. he might win them over to goodwill; while those others claimed both to settle the part falling to their own men and themselves to plant the colonies, that they might appropriate their strength. For it seemed most ready to both parties to bestow the property of the unarmed upon those who had fought with them. When, then, against their expectation much disturbance arose and the matter was being drawn toward war

6.3. (for at the beginning Caesar was taking away from their masters all Italy—save anything that one of the discharged soldiers held, having received it as a gift or bought it from the public treasury—together with the slaves and the rest of the furnishings, and giving it to those men, and on this account those who were being deprived of their possessions

6.4. were terribly indignant with him), Fulvia and the consul changed sides, hoping to have greater power among the others, the wronged, and they neglected those who were to receive the lands, and turned to those men, inasmuch as they were both more numerous and had a just anger over what they were being deprived of.

6.5. And thereupon, taking up each set of them, they both aided and organized them, so that even those who in former times feared Caesar then, having got protectors, took heart and let go nothing more of their own; for they thought that this too was Marcus’ wish.

7.1. These men, then, Lucius and Fulvia attached to themselves, and gave no offence to the others, the party of Caesar. For they did not put forward that the soldiers ought not to be allotted any land, but declared the property of those who had made war against them sufficient for them,

7.2. and most of all because they pointed out lands and movables, some still then existing, some already sold, of which they said either the things themselves or the value of them ought to be given to the soldiers. And if even these should not suffice for them, by the hopes from Asia they bound them all to themselves.

7.3. So that quickly from these things it came about that Caesar, inasmuch as he was forcibly taking away the property of those who possessed something and was bringing toils and dangers alike upon all on their behalf, gave offence to both parties, while those others, since they were depriving no one and were pointing out to those who would receive it the fulfilment of the promises, without a fight, from their own resources,

7.4. won over both. From these things, then, and from the famine, which then pressed them terribly, since the sea about Sicily was held by Sextus and that in the Ionian gulf by Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, Caesar fell into great

7.5. perplexity. For Domitius was one of the murderers, but, having escaped from the battle at Philippi, had got together a fleet, and held the gulf for some time and destroyed the goods of his adversaries to a very great extent.

8.1. These things, then, grieved Caesar terribly, and also that in the disputes that arose between the senators and the rest of the multitude that possessed the lands, and the soldiers (and very many disputes there were, inasmuch as they were contending for the greatest stakes), he could attach himself to neither party without

8.2. danger. For it was impossible for him to gratify both; for the one wished to commit outrage, the other to be unharmed, and the one to take even others’ property, the other to keep their own. And as often as he preferred the cause of these or of those, as somehow he was compelled, he became hateful to the others, and obtained not so much gratitude from what he did for some as anger

8.3. from what he did not grant; for the one, taking all that was given as owed to them, reckoned it no benefaction, while the others were vexed as being deprived of their own. And thereupon he continued to give offence either to these or to those, and was charged now as a friend of the people, now as a

8.4. friend of the soldiers. And for these reasons, since he accomplished nothing, and besides learned from the very deeds that arms could in no way make the wronged well-disposed toward him, but that, on the one hand, it was possible to destroy through them all that did not yield, while, on the other, it was impossible to compel anyone to love whom he did not wish, so at last, even against his will,

8.5. he gave way, and no longer took anything from the senators (for before he had even claimed to distribute all their property too, asking them, ‘Whence, then, shall we pay the rewards to the soldiers?’ as though someone had bidden him make war or promise so much to them), and he refrained also from all else that women had assessed for their dowries or that certain others possessed of less than the land given per man to the soldiers.

9.1. When this was done, the senate and the rest who were deprived of nothing were somewhat mildly disposed toward him, but the soldiers, considering the sparing and the honour shown toward those men to be at once a dishonour and a loss to themselves, as though they would receive

9.2. less, were vexed, and killed many of the centurions and of the others who were friendly to Caesar and prevented them from making a disturbance, and they came within a little of making away with Caesar himself, making any excuse whatever sufficient for their

9.3. anger. And they did not cease being harsh before the land that any of them held was released to their kinsmen and to the fathers and sons of those who had fallen in the battles. From this the soldiers became more favourably disposed to him again, but the people on this very

9.4. account were once more indignant. And they came to blows with one another, and continual battles took place between them, so that many on both sides alike were wounded and died. For the one party prevailed by their equipment of arms and their experience in wars, the other by their number and by pelting them from the

9.5. roofs, so that many houses were on this account burned down, and the rent was remitted—for those in the city dwelling at up to five hundred drachmas, the whole, and for those in the rest of Italy, the quarter of a single year. For in all the cities alike, wherever they chanced to fall in with one another, they fought.

10.1. When, then, these things were so, and soldiers sent forward by Caesar into Spain both made a disturbance in Placentia, and did not desist before they received money from the inhabitants, and besides were prevented from crossing the Alps by Calenus and Ventidius, who held Transalpine

10.2. Gaul, Caesar feared lest he suffer some reverse, and wished to be reconciled with Fulvia and the consul. And when, sending to them privately and on his own account, he accomplished nothing, he had recourse to the soldiers and through them transacted the

10.3. reconciliation. But they, elated by these things and attaching the men deprived of their lands to themselves, Lucius went about everywhere organizing them and drawing them from Caesar, while Fulvia seized Praeneste, and, having senators and knights as her associates, deliberated with them about all else, and sent out the orders

10.4. as was needful to each place. And why should one wonder at this, when she even girt on a sword and gave the watchword to the soldiers, and often harangued among them? So that

11.1. these things too gave offence to Caesar. Having, however, no means to overthrow them (for he was much inferior to them not only in force but in the goodwill of the rest; for he himself grieved many, while they raised the hopes of all), he often invited them privately, through his friends, to a reconciliation; but when he accomplished nothing, he sent from the soldiers

11.2. envoys to them. For he hoped most of all both to obtain his end from them and to settle present matters and thereby to hold out for the future; but if he should fail of them, at least he thought that the blame for the difference would lie not with himself but

11.3. with them. And so it proved. For when he accomplished nothing even through the soldiers, he sent senators, both disclosing to them the agreements that had been made by him with Antony and making them, forsooth, judges of the differences.

11.4. But when not even then was anything done (for they on the one hand put forward in turn many demands which Caesar was not going to do, and on the other said that all they were doing they did by the instruction of Marcus Antonius), so then he again inclined toward the soldiers.

12.1. And after this those others, coming together to Rome in a great multitude, as though to communicate something to the people and the senate, took no thought of these, but, gathering on the Capitol, bade the agreements which Antony and Caesar had made be read to them, and both ratified those and voted themselves to be

12.2. judges of the matters about which they were at variance. And, writing these things on tablets and sealing them, they gave them to the Vestal Virgins to keep, and ordered Caesar, who was present, and the others, through an embassy, to meet for the trial at Gabii on a fixed

12.3. day. And when Caesar was ready to be tried, but they promised to come yet did not come, either through fear or through disdain (at any rate they mocked them, calling them, among other things, a ‘booted senate,’ from the soldiers’ boots they used), they passed sentence against Lucius and Fulvia as wrongdoers and took the side of

12.4. Caesar. And thereupon, deliberating often again, they took up war anew and made their preparations against him not idly. For, among other things, they gathered money from everywhere and from the temples; for they took down the votive offerings, as many as could be turned into silver, both those in the rest of Italy that was under their power and those set up in

12.5. Rome itself. And to them, both money and soldiers came from Togate Gaul, which had now been inscribed into the district of Italy, so that no one else, on the pretext of a command there, should maintain soldiers within the Alps.

13.1. Caesar, then, made his preparations, and Fulvia and Lucius procured what was suitable and got together their forces. And in this they sent embassies against one another and dispatched everywhere both soldiers and commanders, each party seizing some places beforehand and being beaten off from others. And the most of these things—those in which nothing great or worthy of mention was done—I shall pass over, but the things most worthy of mention I shall relate briefly.

13.2. Caesar, marching against Nursia among the Sabines, routed the garrison posted before them, but was beaten off from the city by Tisienus Gallus. Removing, then, into Umbria, he besieged the Sentinates, but did not take them;

13.3. for Lucius, in this time, at first secretly sending soldiers to Rome to his friends under one pretext and another, and then coming upon it suddenly himself, both overcame the cavalry that met him and dashed the infantry back to the wall,

13.4. and thereupon took the city too, those who had come beforehand joining in the attack upon those who defended it from within (for neither did Lepidus, to whom the guarding of it had been entrusted, do anything against it, through his inbred sluggishness, nor was Servilius the consul any quieter), Caesar, learning this, left Quintus Salvidienus Rufus with the Sentinates,

13.5. and himself set out for Rome. Lucius, then, learning this, withdrew beforehand, having contrived that it be voted for him to take the field as though against some war; and indeed he harangued in military array, which no other had done. And so Caesar was received into the city without a fight, and, when, pursuing him, he did not overtake him, he turned back, and made a stricter guard of the

13.6. city. And in this Rufus, as soon as Caesar had withdrawn from the Sentinates and Gaius Furnius, who was guarding the wall, had sallied out, pursuing him far, fell upon those within unawares, and, taking the city, plundered and burned it. The Nursini came to terms suffering no harm; but when, having buried those who had fallen in the battle that had taken place against Caesar, they inscribed on their tombs that they had died fighting for liberty, they were fined a very great sum, so as to abandon both the city and all the land at once.

14.1. These men, then, were doing these things; and Lucius, when he then set out from Rome, started for Gaul, but, being barred from the road, turned aside to Perusia, a Tyrrhenian city; and there at first Caesar’s lieutenants, and afterwards he himself, cutting him off, besieged him.

14.2. And as the siege became long for them (for the place is both strong by nature and was sufficiently furnished with provisions, and the horsemen sent forward by Lucius, before he was completely surrounded, grieved them terribly, and besides many others zealously, one from one quarter, another from another, came to his aid),

14.3. much was done both against these, against each set of them, and at the walls, until, though the party of Lucius had the advantage in the greater number of encounters, they nevertheless were taken by famine. And Lucius himself and certain others obtained pardon, but the greater number of the senators and knights perished.

14.4. And a report holds that they did not suffer this simply, but, being led to the altar consecrated to the former Caesar, three hundred knights and senators, among them Tiberius Cannutius, who once in his tribuneship had gathered the multitude for Octavianus Caesar,

14.5. were sacrificed. And of the Perusines and the others taken there the greater part perished, and the city itself, save the temple of Hephaestus and the seat of Hera, was wholly burned.

14.6. This temple—for it was somehow saved by chance—was reported to Rome from a vision of a dream which Caesar saw, and he both gave it, and the city, to those who wished to be settled together there, save that they acquired none of the territory beyond seven stades and a half.

15.1. When, then, that city had been taken, in the consulship of Gnaeus Calvinus for the second time and of Asinius Pollio, the rest of Italy too, partly by force and partly of their own will, went over to Caesar; and on this account Fulvia fled to her husband with her

15.2. children, and many of the other foremost men withdrew, some to him and some to Sextus, into Sicily. And Julia, the mother of the Antonii, at first came thither, and was received very kindly by Sextus, and afterwards was sent by him to her son Marcus, bearing both words concerning friendship and

15.3. envoys. Among those who then withdrew from Italy to Antony, Claudius Tiberius Nero also fled. For he held a garrison in Campania, and when Caesar’s affairs became superior, he set off with his wife Livia Drusilla and his son Tiberius

15.4. Claudius Nero, so that this too befell among the most paradoxical of things; for this Livia, who then fled from Caesar, afterwards married him, and this Tiberius, who then escaped with his parents, succeeded to his imperial power.

16.1. These things happened later; but at that time those in Rome resumed the dress of peace (for they had laid it aside without a decree, by compulsion of the people), and themselves celebrated, and brought Caesar into the city in triumphal robe and honoured him with a crown of laurel, so that, as often as those who sent the triumphs were wont to use it,

16.2. he too should adorn himself with it. And Caesar, since affairs in Italy were settled and the Ionian gulf had been freed (for Domitius, despairing of being any longer strong by himself, had sailed off to Antony), made ready as though to set out against Sextus, but, perceiving his strength, and that he had held communication with Antony both through his mother and through envoys, feared lest he make war on both

16.3. at once, and, preferring Sextus as both more trustworthy and stronger than Antony, both sent his mother Mucia to him and married the sister of his father-in-law Lucius Scribonius Libo, in the hope that somehow by the benefaction and by the kinship he might make him his friend.

17.1. For Sextus, when he had then departed from Spain according to the agreements with Lepidus, and afterwards, not long after, was made commander of the fleet, was deprived of the office by Caesar, but, clinging to the fleet even so, dared to sail to Italy; but when the party of Caesar already

17.2. held it, and he learned that he had been condemned among his father’s murderers, he kept away from the mainland, and, sailing about among the islands, watched events and procured his living not from wrongdoing; for, inasmuch as he had had no share in the murder, he hoped to be brought back even by Caesar

17.3. himself. When, however, his name too was posted on the list, and he learned that it was even proscribed, he despaired of return through him and made ready for war; for he built triremes and received deserters, attached the pirates to himself, and took up those who were being cast out.

17.4. And from these in a short time he became strong and held the sea about Italy, and landed in its harbours and dragged off the vessels and made plunderings. And as affairs went well with him, so as to procure both soldiers and money from them, he sailed to Sicily, and held Mylae and Tyndaris without a fight, but was beaten off from Messana by Pompey Bithynicus, who was then governor of Sicily.

17.5. Yet he did not wholly withdraw from it, but, overrunning the country and preventing the importation of provisions, and attaching to himself, some through fear lest they suffer the same, others by injury from some ambush, of those who came to their aid, he won over the quaestor with his money, and at last took both Messana and Bithynicus by agreement, as one who should govern on equal terms with

17.6. him. And to this man he did no harm at that time, but took away from those others their arms and their money. And after this he won over Syracuse and certain other cities, and gathered from them more soldiers and a very strong fleet; and Quintus Cornuficius sent him some force from Africa.

18.1. And he, then, thus grew, but Caesar for a while paid no attention to him, both through his contempt for him and through his preoccupation with matters in hand; but when through the famine much destruction occurred in the city, and Sextus made attempts on Italy too, then at last he began both to equip some fleet, and to send forward Rufus Salvidienus

18.2. with a large force to Rhegium. And he thrust Sextus out of Italy, but, when he had withdrawn into Sicily, undertook to make leathern boats after the manner of those who sail in the ocean, fastening them within with light rods and stretching round the outside a raw ox-hide in the manner of a round shield.

18.3. But when he incurred ridicule, and was convinced that he would be in danger if he tried to use them through the strait, he gave these up, but with the fleet that had been equipped and had come he dared to sail across, yet could not; for the number and size of his ships were much inferior to the experience and daring of his adversaries.

18.4. Caesar, then, being an eyewitness of the sea-battle (for during his expedition into Macedonia these things were so done), bore it ill, and most of all because then for the first time, on engaging, he was defeated. And on this account he no longer dared to cross by main force, although the greater part of his fleet was saved to him;

18.5. but, having often attempted secretly, in the belief that, if he set foot on the island, he would greatly prevail with his infantry, then, when he accomplished nothing, since a strong guard was everywhere about it, he ordered certain others to keep watch over Sicily, while he himself went to Antony at Brundisium, and from there, by the aid of the ships, crossed the Ionian Sea.

19.1. When this had happened, Sextus held the whole island, and killed Bithynicus as having plotted against him, and held triumphal spectacles, and made a sea-battle of the captives in the strait beside Rhegium itself, so that the enemy too might see, matching certain wooden boats against others of hide, in mockery of

19.2. Rufus. And after this he built more ships and held the sea round about, and assumed a certain repute and pride as being a son of Poseidon, because his father had once ruled all the sea. These things he did while the affairs of Cassius and Brutus still

19.3. held together; but when those men perished, others fled for refuge to him, and Lucius Staius. And at first he received him gladly (for he brought with him the force he commanded), but afterwards, seeing him to be both active and high-spirited, he killed him, bringing a charge of treachery

19.4. against him. And thereupon, taking over both his fleet and the multitude of slaves coming from Italy, he grew exceedingly; for so many deserted that the Vestal Virgins even prayed at the sacrifices that their desertions might be stayed.

20.1. Both on account of these things, then, and because he received those who fled from Caesar, and was working for the friendship of Antony, and was plundering much of Italy, Caesar desired to be reconciled with him; but, failing of this, he ordered Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa to make war on him, while he himself set off for

20.2. Gaul. Learning this, then, Sextus watched for Agrippa while he was occupied with the Apollonia; for he was praetor, and, among many other things, since he was very friendly to Caesar, he displayed himself splendidly, and held the horse-race for two days, and gloried in the game called Troy, performed by boys of noble birth. While he was doing these things, Sextus crossed over into Italy and remained in it ravaging, until Agrippa arrived; for then, leaving a garrison in certain places, he sailed back.

20.3. Caesar had before attempted, through others, as has been said, to seize Gaul, but, being unable through Calenus and the others who favoured Antony, he then held it himself, finding Calenus dead of sickness and attaching his army to himself without effort.

20.4. And in this, seeing Lepidus indignant at the deprivation of the command falling to him, he sent him into Africa, in order that, receiving it as though from himself alone and not from Antony as well, he might be more familiarly disposed toward him.

21.1. Now there were, as I have said, two provinces of the Romans in that part of Libya; and before the conspiracy of the three men there governed the Numidian one Titus Sextius, and the other both Cornuficius and Decimus Laelius—the one favouring Antony, the others

21.2. favouring Caesar. And for a while Sextius waited, as though those men (for they had a far greater force) would invade his province, and made ready as though to defend himself against them there too; but when they delayed, he despised them, and, being further encouraged by an ox which spoke, as they say, in a human voice and bade him hold fast to what lay before him,

21.3. and by a dream in which a certain bull buried in the city of Tucca seemed to counsel him to take up its head and carry it about on a pole, as one who would thereby conquer, he made no delay—especially because he found the bull in the place where he said the dream was—but himself first invaded

21.4. Africa. And at first he seized Hadrumetum and certain other places, falling upon them unexpectedly; but afterwards, being unguarded on this very account, he was ambushed by the quaestor, and, losing a great part of his army, withdrew into Numidia. And since he chanced to have come to misfortune without the bull’s head, he referred his defeat to this, and made ready

21.5. as though to take the field again. And in this the enemy, forestalling him, invaded his province in turn; and the rest besieged Cirta, while the quaestor set out against him with the cavalry, and, prevailing in certain cavalry battles, won over the fellow-quaestor. When these things had been done, Sextius, taking on some fresh reinforcement, risked battle anew, and both conquered the quaestor in turn and shut up Laelius, who was overrunning the country, in the

21.6. fortress. And, deceiving Cornuficius, who came to his aid, as though Laelius had been taken, and throwing him into despondency, he defeated him, and both killed him in the battle and Laelius, who sallied out as though to fall upon them from the rear.

22.1. Having done these things, he held Africa and ruled both provinces without fear, until Caesar, having received the command of them from the agreements with Antony and Lepidus, set Gaius Fuficius Fango over them; for then he willingly withdrew from the provinces.

22.2. When, however, the battle against Brutus and Cassius had taken place, and Caesar and Antony redistributed the rest, and of Libya Caesar took Numidia and Antony Africa (for Lepidus ruled in them in name only, as I have said, and often this too was not added in the documents),

22.3. when, then, these things were so, and Fulvia bade him take over Africa for himself (for he was even then lingering in Libya, on the pretext of the winter, but in deed well knowing that some innovation would be made), he did not persuade Fango to withdraw from the country, but attached to himself the natives, who were vexed with Fango (for he had served in the mercenary force—for many of such men, as I have said, had been enrolled into the senate—and ruled them badly).

22.4. When this had happened, Fango withdrew into Numidia, and treated the Cirtensians, who despised him in the present circumstances, badly, and expelled from his rule a certain Arabion, who held power among the barbarians dwelling near them and had before aided Laelius but afterwards attached himself to Sextius,

22.5. because he was unwilling to ally himself with him. And, when Arabion fled for refuge to Sextius, demanding his surrender and not obtaining it, he conceived anger, and, invading Africa, ravaged the country; but, when Sextius encamped against him, he was defeated in many small battles, and on this account

22.6. was conveyed back again into Numidia. And Sextius, advancing against him, had hope of conquering quickly, chiefly by Arabion’s cavalry; but, suspecting something and treacherously killing him, he then accomplished nothing more; for the horsemen, taking his destruction hard, abandoned him, and the greater part of them chose the side of

23.1. Fango. But for the present they made friendship, as though the pretext of the war had been removed for them; but afterwards Fango, watching for Sextius, who was unguarded by reason of the truce,

23.2. invaded Africa. And there, engaging one another, at first both conquered and were defeated (for the one prevailed with the Numidian cavalry, the other with the civic shield), so that they even plundered one another’s camps, neither party knowing anything about their fellow-soldiers;

23.3. but when, withdrawing, they perceived what had happened, they came to blows again, and, a rout of the Numidians occurring, Fango then fled into the mountains, but in the night, when some antelopes ran past, he thought the enemy’s cavalry was at hand

23.4. and made away with himself. And so Sextius took the rest without effort, but subdued Zama, which held out the longest, by famine. And thereupon he again governed both provinces,

23.5. until Lepidus was sent; for to him, as though by Antony’s consent too, or because he was much inferior in forces, he made no opposition, but, accounting necessity as if it were his own choice, kept quiet. And so Lepidus held both provinces.

24.1. These things were so; but in these same times, after the battle that took place at Philippi, Marcus Antonius came into the mainland of Asia, and there, partly going about himself and partly sending others, both levied money on the cities and sold the

24.2. principalities. And in this, falling in love with Cleopatra, who was seen by him in Cilicia, he made no further account of honour, but was a slave to the Egyptian and devoted his leisure to his love of her. And he did many other strange things on this account, and, dragging away the brothers of Cleopatra from the temple of Artemis in

24.3. Ephesus, killed them. And at last, leaving Plancus in the province of Asia and Saxa in Syria, he set off for Egypt. Whence above all many other turbulent things arose, so that the Aradian islanders neither obeyed those sent by him to them for money, and besides destroyed some of them, and the Parthians, who even before were

24.4. in motion, then yet more set upon the Romans. And those who led them were Labienus and Pacorus, the latter being a son of Orodes the king, the former of Titus Labienus. And he came thus to the Parthians, and did the following along with Pacorus.

24.5. He chanced to be allied with Cassius and Brutus, and, being sent to Orodes before the battle that he might obtain some aid, was kept by him a long time, while Orodes held aloof, shrinking from making an agreement with him yet fearing to refuse.

24.6. And after this, when the news of the defeat arrived, and the victors seemed likely to spare none of those who had made war against them, he remained among the barbarians, preferring life among them to destruction at home. This Labienus, then, as soon as he perceived the dissoluteness of Antony and his love and his journey into Egypt, persuaded the Parthian to set upon the

24.7. Romans. For he said that of their armies some had been utterly destroyed and others crippled, and that the rest were in faction and would make war again; and thereupon he counselled him to subdue Syria and the regions bordering it, while Caesar had his occupation in Italy and about Sextus,

24.8. and Antony was in love in Egypt. And he promised to be the leader of the war, and announced that he would on this account bring over to him many of the peoples too, inasmuch as they were ill-disposed toward the Romans by reason of their continual ill-treatment.

25.1. Having spoken to this effect, then, and persuaded him to make war, and being entrusted with a great force and with his son Pacorus, he with them both invaded Phoenicia, and, advancing against Apamea, was beaten off from the wall but won over of their own will the garrisons in the

25.2. country. For they were from among those who had served with Cassius and Brutus; for Antony had enrolled them into his own legions, and then had bidden them garrison Syria as men experienced in it. These men, then, Labienus easily won over, as being his acquaintances, save Saxa, who then commanded them (for he, being both a brother of the army-commander and quaestor, alone did not go over to him),

25.3. and he conquered Saxa the governor in a pitched battle, by the number and the valour of his cavalry, and after this pursued him when he fled by night from the entrenchment; for Saxa, fearing lest those with him too favour Labienus’ cause, who was drawing them over by certain papers which he shot into the camp,

25.4. fled. Overtaking them, then, Labienus destroyed the greater part, and, when Saxa escaped to Antioch, he took Apamea, which no longer held out against him as though Saxa were dead, and after this won over Antioch too, which had been abandoned by him, and at last pursued Saxa himself, who fled to Cilicia, and, seizing him, killed him.

26.1. On his death Pacorus reduced Syria, and subdued all of it save Tyre; for this the surviving Romans and the natives who shared their views seized beforehand, and could neither be persuaded nor forced (for he had no fleet).

26.2. These, then, remained untaken; but Pacorus, taking the rest, invaded Palestine, and deposed Hyrcanus, who then held their affairs, having been entrusted with them by the Romans, and set up in his stead his brother Aristobulus as ruler,

26.3. by reason of their enmity. And Labienus in this time held Cilicia, and won over the mainland cities of Asia (for Plancus, fearing him, crossed over to the islands) save Stratonicea—most of them without war, but Mylasa and Alabanda

26.4. he took with danger. For these received garrisons from him, but, killing them at a certain festival, revolted; and on this account he punished the Alabandians themselves, when he had taken them, but razed Mylasa, which had been abandoned. For he beleaguered Stratonicea a long time, but could in no way take it.

26.5. And he exacted money for these things and plundered the temples, and styled himself imperator and indeed Parthicus, from the most opposite custom to that of the Romans; for those whom he was bringing against them, from these he named himself, as though conquering them and not the

27.1. citizens. And Antony learned both these things, as also the other things being done in Italy (for he was wholly ignorant of none of them), yet he aided neither party in season, but through his love and through his drunkenness took thought neither of his allies nor of his

27.2. enemies. For so long as he had been set below others and was aiming at the first place, he attended intently to affairs; but when he had come into the power, he no longer cared carefully for any of them, but reveled with Cleopatra and the other Egyptians,

27.3. until he was utterly undone. Late, then, at last, being compelled to rouse himself, he sailed to Tyre as though to come to their aid, but, seeing the rest already seized, he abandoned them, making the war against Sextus his pretext; and yet for his slowness toward him too he put forward the affairs of the

27.4. Parthians as his excuse. And so he aided neither his allies—on account of Sextus, forsooth—nor Italy—on account of them—but, conveyed along the mainland as far as Asia, crossed over into Greece, and there, falling in with his mother and his wife, both made Caesar his enemy

27.5. and concluded a friendship with Sextus. And after this, crossing over into Italy, he held Sipuntum, and besieged Brundisium, which was unwilling to go over to him.

28.1. While he was doing these things, Caesar gathered his forces (for he was now arrived from Gaul), and sent Publius Servilius Rullus to Brundisium and Agrippa to Sipuntum; and the latter took the city by force, but upon Servilius Antony fell suddenly and destroyed many

28.2. and won over many. When, then, they had broken into war, and were sending messages both to the cities and to the soldiers, wherever they thought to gain any aid, the rest of Italy was again thrown into turmoil and Rome most of all, and some were already going over to one or the other, others were about to. And while both they themselves and those who would fight with them were in suspense,

28.3. Fulvia died at Sicyon, where she was. And Antony incurred the blame for her death by reason of his love for Cleopatra and her wantonness; but when this was announced, both laid down their arms and were reconciled—whether truly stirred to war before by Fulvia, or making her death the pretext for it, by reason of their fear of one another, since they had both their forces and their hopes evenly matched.

28.4. And in this Caesar took as his portion Sardinia and Dalmatia and Spain and Gaul, while Antony took all the rest beyond the Ionian Sea, both in Europe and in Asia, that belonged to the Romans; for the provinces in Libya Lepidus held, and Sicily Sextus.

29.1. They thus divided the empire again, and shared the war against Sextus, although Antony had made oaths to him through messengers against Caesar.

29.2. And on this account not least Caesar consented to receive on terms of immunity all who had gone over to him in the war against Lucius, Antony’s brother—and among them certain who were even of the murderers, Domitius among others—and all who had been posted on the lists, or had otherwise fought with Brutus and Cassius and afterwards favoured Antony’s

29.3. cause. So great is the inconsistency both of factions and of wars, those who hold affairs reckoning nothing by justice, but testing both friend and foe by their needs from time to time and their interests, and on this account accounting the same men now enemies, now intimates, according to the occasion.

30.1. Having agreed upon these things, then, they feasted one another in the camps near Brundisium—Caesar in soldier-like and Roman fashion,

30.2. Antony in Asiatic and Egyptian. And when they had been reconciled, as it seemed, the soldiers then with Caesar surrounded Antony and demanded of him the money which they had promised them before the battle at Philippi; on account of which he had also been sent into Asia, that he might gather as

30.3. much as possible. And they would have done him some harm, as he gave nothing, had not Caesar somehow encouraged them and held them back. And after this they sent the older soldiers to the colonies, lest they make further faction, and

30.4. took up the war. For Sextus had come into Italy according to the agreements made with Antony, as though to make war on Caesar along with him, but, learning of their reconciliation, himself was conveyed back into Sicily, and bade Menas, a freedman of his, to whom he was very attached, sailing about with part of the fleet, to ravage the goods of his

30.5. adversaries. And he both did much harm to Tyrrhenia, and took alive Marcus Titius, son of Titius, who was one of the proscribed and was then with Sextus and was equipping ships for a domination of his own and lying at anchor in the Narbonese province.

30.6. And he suffered no harm (for both on his father’s account, and because Sextus’ name was borne on his soldiers’ shields, he was saved); yet he did not requite his benefactor well, but even made war on him and slew him, so that this too was remembered among the most flagrant of such

30.7. deeds. Menas, then, did these things thus, and, sailing to Sardinia, engaged Marcus Lurius, its governor, and at first was put to flight, but afterwards, unexpectedly making a stand against him as he pursued recklessly, prevailed in turn.

30.8. And after this, when Lurius abandoned the island, he held it—the rest by agreement, but Caralis by siege; for many had fled for refuge into it from the battle. Of the captives, however, he released without ransom, among others, Helenus, who was a freedman of Caesar and most pleasing to him, both laying up beforehand a benefaction toward Caesar from afar and preparing for himself a refuge, should he need anything from him.

31.1. And he was doing these things; but those in Rome, when Sardinia was held and the coast was being plundered, and they were deprived of the grain-supply, and the famine and the many taxes of all kinds being imposed, and besides the contributions enjoined on those who held slaves,

31.2. grieved them terribly, no longer kept quiet, but, as much as they had rejoiced at the reconciliation of Antony and Caesar, as though their concord were their own peace, so much or even more were they distressed at their war against

31.3. Sextus. At that time, then, having brought them in on horseback as though in some triumph, and adorned them with the triumphal robe on a par with those who sent the triumphs, and made them view the festivals from the magistrates’ chairs, and betrothed Octavia, the sister of Caesar, to Antony, since her husband

31.4. had died, and that too while she was pregnant—they used so great a change that at first, forming themselves into groups or gathering for some spectacle, they exhorted them to make peace and cried out much over this; but when they were not persuaded, they were alienated from them and inclined toward

31.5. Sextus. And they noised abroad other things in his honour, and in the horse-races honoured with much applause the image of Poseidon as it was carried in procession and took much delight in it. And when on certain days it was not brought in, they drove the men in office out of the Forum with stones and threw down their images, and at last, when even so nothing was accomplished, they set upon them in haste

31.6. as though to kill them. And Caesar, although those about him were wounded, both rent his garment and turned to entreaty of them; but Antony bore himself more violently toward them. And on this account, since they were exceedingly enraged at this too and were expected to do something dreadful, they were compelled, even against their will, to send heralds to Sextus.

32.1. And in this they deposed the praetors and the consuls, although it was already at the outgoing of the year, and substituted others, taking little thought

32.2. whether they should hold office for only a few days. And one of those who then held the consulship was Lucius Cornelius Balbus, a man of Gades, and one who so far surpassed the men of his time in wealth and magnanimity that at his death he even left to the Romans a gift of twenty-five drachmas

32.3. each. This, then, they did, and on the last day of the year, when a certain aedile died, they substituted another for the remaining hours. And in this same time the water named Julian was brought by conduit into the city,

32.4. and the festival vowed for the war against the murderers was celebrated by the consuls. And the duties belonging to the men called the Seven the pontiffs performed, since none of those men was present; and this happened many other times as well.

33.1. These things, then, were thus done in that year, and Caesar gave public burial to Sphaerus, who had been his tutor and freedman. And he killed Rufus Salvidienus as having plotted

33.2. against him. This man was of the most obscure origin, and his head, while he was tending flocks, had sent up a flame; but he was advanced by Caesar to such a degree that he himself was appointed consul without even being a senator, and his brother, who had died before, was carried out across the Tiber, a bridge having been made for this very

33.3. purpose. But, since nothing human is secure, he was accused in the senate by Caesar himself, and was slain as an enemy of him and of the whole people; and religious festivals were held over it, and besides the guarding of the city was entrusted to the three men with the customary addition, that no harm should come to it from them.

33.4. And in the year before this, men of the equestrian order brought down wild beasts in the horse-race of the Apollonia, and an intercalary day was thrown in contrary to custom, that the new moon of the following year might not take the market held every nine days—a thing which had been strictly guarded from very ancient times; and it is clear that it was taken away again, that the time might fall in accordance with what had seemed good to the former

33.5. Caesar. And to a certain Castor was given the rule both of Attalus and of Deiotarus, who had died, in Galatia; and the law called Falcidian, which has even now the greatest force concerning the succession of inheritances, so that one who is in any way burdened may take the fourth part of the property left to him and renounce the rest, was enacted by Publius Falcidius, when tribune.

34.1. These things happened in the two years; but in the following year, in which Lucius Marcius and Gaius Sabinus were consuls, the acts of the three men, from the time when they entered upon the oligarchy,

34.2. received ratification from the senate, and certain taxes were established by them, because the expenditures were ordained to be far greater than they had been under the former Caesar; for, spending very much, and chiefly on the soldiers, they were ashamed

34.3. only to spend contrary to custom. Indeed Caesar then for the first time shaved his beard, and both held a great festival himself and afforded all the rest a public festival. And he afterwards too kept his chin smooth, like the others; for he was already beginning to be in love with Livia, and on this account he sent away Scribonia, who had borne him a little daughter,

34.4. on the very same day. The expenditures, then, being much greater than before, and the revenues both not otherwise sufficing and at that time coming in less by reason of the factions, they brought in certain new taxes, and inscribed into the senate very many men—not only of the allies, or even soldiers and sons of freedmen, but even

34.5. slaves. At any rate, a certain Maximus, who was about to be quaestor, was recognized by his master and led away. And to this man it became safe to have dared to seek the office; but another, detected among the praetors, was thrown down from the Capitoline rocks, having been first freed, that his punishment might have dignity.

35.1. And the pretext for the great number of those who held office was furnished them by the expedition of Antony, which he was preparing against the Parthians; whence they appointed beforehand both other offices for several years and the consulship for eight whole years, partly requiting those who had aided them, partly winning over

35.2. others. And they then for the first time chose not two annual consuls, as was customary, but more at once at the elections. For before, certain men had held office after others who had neither died nor been deposed for dishonour or in any other way; but those were appointed, as it seemed good to those elected for the whole year; whereas then no one was chosen for the whole year, but for the several parts of the time

35.3. different men were appointed. And the first held the name of the consulship for the whole year too, as is even now the case; but the others were named, in the city and the rest of Italy, in each man’s own term of office—which is even now done—while the rest knew either some of them or none, and on this account called them the lesser consuls.

36.1. At home, then, they were doing these things; but with Sextus they came to terms, first through their friends, both how and on what conditions they should be reconciled, and afterwards they themselves came to conference at Misenum. And the others stood on the mainland, while Sextus stood on a certain mole in the sea, surrounded by water for this very purpose, made not far from them for his safety;

36.2. and there were present all his naval host and all their infantry crowd, not simply, but the one on the land and the others on the ships, drawn up under arms, so that from this very thing it became clear to all that out of fear of one another’s preparation and out of necessity—the one party on account of the people, the other on account of

36.3. those with him—they made their terms. And the agreements were on these conditions: that the slaves who had deserted should be free, and that those who had been cast out, save the murderers, should return; for these they excepted, forsooth, since in deed some even of them were going to return; for Sextus himself was thought to be one

36.4. of them. But it was written that all the rest save these should return on terms of immunity and on the fourth part of their confiscated property, and that to some of them tribuneships and praetorships and priesthoods should at once be given, while Sextus himself should be chosen consul and appointed augur,

36.5. and should receive of his father’s property seventeen million five hundred thousand drachmas, and should govern Sicily and Sardinia and Achaia for five years, neither receiving deserters nor acquiring ships nor holding any garrisons in Italy, but

36.6. administering the peace of the sea for it and sending a fixed quantity of grain to those in the city. And they added this term for him, because they themselves too wished to seem to hold the power for a certain occasion and not forever.

37.1. Having agreed upon and written down these things, then, they deposited the documents with the Vestal priestesses, and after this gave one another their right hands and kissed one another. When this had happened, a great and immense shout was raised both from the mainland

37.2. and from the ships at once. For many soldiers and many private men who were present cried out all together and suddenly, inasmuch as they were terribly distressed by the war and strongly desired peace, so that the mountains too resounded, and thereupon both shuddering and great consternation arose among them, and many perished from these very things, and many, trampled together or even choked,

37.3. were destroyed. For those in the vessels did not wait to come to the land itself, but leaped out into the sea, and the others on the land waded into the very deep. And in this they greeted one another while swimming and embraced while diving, so that there was a varied

37.4. sight of them and a varied sound. For those who knew their kinsmen and comrades to be alive and saw them then present used an insatiable joy; while those who had thought them perished before and then beyond expectation beheld them were for a long time at a loss and held by speechlessness, at once disbelieving the sight and praying that it might be true; and they did not recognize them before they had called their names and

37.5. heard them say something; and so they rejoiced as though their friends had come back to life, but, compelled to be glad all together, they passed the time not without tears. And others, ignorant that their dearest had perished, and thinking them to be alive and present, both sought them, going about, and questioned everyone they met

37.6. concerning them; and for a while they learned nothing certain, and were like madmen and stood in perplexity, at once hoping to find them and fearing lest they were dead, and able neither to despair, by reason of their desire, nor to cease grieving, by reason of their

37.7. hope; but when they learned the truth, they tore their hair and rent their garments, and called them by name as though they could hear something, and made mourning as though they were then dying and lying

37.8. there somewhere. And even if to some no such thing befell, yet they were troubled at the sufferings of the others; for either they rejoiced with one who was glad or grieved with one who mourned, and so, even if they were outside any private suffering, they nevertheless could not, by reason of their fellowship with the others, keep quiet.

37.9. And from this they took neither satiety nor shame, inasmuch as they shared in the same feelings, but consumed the whole day and the greater part of the night in these things.

38.1. After this both the rest received one another and feasted one another in turn, and those very men too—Sextus first on his ship, and afterwards Caesar and Antony on the mainland; for Sextus so far surpassed them in force that he did not go up onto the mainland before they had come

38.2. onto his ship. And, having done this, though he could have killed both, present in the vessel with few attendants—as indeed Menas counselled him—he would not, but, although toward Antony, since he held his ancestral house in the Carinae (for there is a place in the city of the Romans so called), he jested in a manner most pleasant

38.3. (for, since the keels of ships have the same name, he said that he was feasting them ‘in the Carinae’), yet he did nothing as though bearing them malice, but on the next day was feasted in return, and betrothed his daughter to Marcus Marcellus, the nephew of Caesar.

39.1. This war, then, was postponed; but the affairs of Labienus and the Parthians were fought out thus. Antony himself, returning from Italy into Greece, there lingered a very long time, both fulfilling his desires and afflicting the cities with ills, that they might be handed over to Sextus in the weakest

39.2. state possible. And among many other ways in this he lived contrary to ancestral custom, and called himself a new Dionysus and demanded to be so named by the rest; and when the Athenians, for this and for other reasons, betrothed Athena to him, he said he accepted the marriage and exacted from them a dowry of ten million. He himself, then, was occupied with these things, but sent forward Publius Ventidius into

39.3. Asia. And he came upon Labienus before he became known, and, dismaying him both by the suddenness of his approach and by his armies (for he was without the Parthians, with the soldiers of the place alone), thrust him from there at once, not even waiting for him to come to blows, and pursued him as he fled into Syria,

39.4. taking the lightest part of his army. And, overtaking him near Taurus, he no longer allowed him to advance farther, but there, encamping for several days, they kept quiet; for Labienus waited for the Parthians, and Ventidius for

40.1. the heavy infantry. When, then, these too came, both on the same days, Ventidius, through fear of the barbarians’ cavalry, remained on the height

40.2. where he was encamped, while the Parthians, despising him both by reason of their number and of having once before conquered, advanced against the hill at dawn, before joining Labienus, and, since no one came out against them, assaulted the very slope.

40.3. And the Romans, when they were now there, ran down and easily routed them on the descending ground. And many of them died at close quarters, but the greater part, in the turning about, were destroyed among one another, some already turned and some still advancing; and the survivors fled not to Labienus but to

40.4. Cilicia. Ventidius, then, pursued them as far as the camp, but, seeing Labienus there, held back. And he drew up as though to come to blows with him, but, perceiving the soldiers to be despondent because of the barbarians’ flight, neither then dared to make a stand against him, and

40.5. in the night attempted to flee somewhere. Learning this beforehand from deserters, then, Ventidius ambushed and killed many in their withdrawal, and won over all the rest who had been abandoned by Labienus. And he then, changing his dress, escaped, and for a time lay hidden in Cilicia,

40.6. but afterwards was taken by Demetrius; for this man, being a freedman of the former Caesar, and then set over Cyprus by Antony, sought him out, learning that he was in hiding, and seized him.

41.1. After this Ventidius recovered Cilicia, and, while he himself was settling it, sent forward Pompaedius Silo with cavalry to

41.2. Amanus. This mountain is on the borders of Cilicia and Syria, and has such a narrow pass that gates were once built in it with a wall,

41.3. and the place was named from them. Silo, however, could not hold it, but was even in danger of perishing at the hands of Phranapates, who was a lieutenant of Pacorus and was guarding the passage. And he would have suffered this, had not Ventidius, coming up by chance while he was fighting, aided him;

41.4. for, falling upon the barbarians while they were both unexpectant and fewer than his own men, he slew Phranapates and many others, and so took over Syria, which had been abandoned by the Parthians, without a fight, save the Aradians, and after this held Palestine without effort, having frightened off Antigonus, who was

41.5. reigning over it. And he was conducting these things, and exacted much money both from the rest, from each, and much from Antigonus and from Antiochus and from Malchus the Nabataean, because they had aided Pacorus. And he himself obtained nothing for these things from the senate, inasmuch as he was not commander-in-chief but lieutenant to another, but Antony received both praises and

41.6. religious festivals. The Aradians, indeed, fearing lest they pay the penalty for their daring against Antony, did not go over to him, although besieged by him for a time, but afterwards were at last with difficulty taken by others.

41.7. About this same time there occurred both a movement among the Parthini in Illyria, which Pollio stayed by battles,

42.1. and also one among the Ceretani in Spain, whom Calvinus subdued, having both gained some success beforehand and suffered some misfortune beforehand through his lieutenant, who was ambushed by the barbarians and abandoned

42.2. by the soldiers. And he did not attack the enemy before he had punished these; for, having called them together as though for some other purpose, he surrounded them with the rest of the army, and decimated two centuries, and punished many centurions, among others the one serving in the rank called the first

42.3. spear. Having done these things, so as even to gain a name after Marcus Crassus for the chastisement of his army, he set out against the enemy and without difficulty

42.4. subdued them. And, obtaining a triumph—although Spain had been assigned to Caesar (for honours fell to the lieutenants too in accordance with the wishes of those in power)—he received the gold customarily given for these things by the cities from the Spanish ones alone, and of it spent part on the festival,

42.5. but the greater part on the palace. For, since it had been burned, he rebuilt and dedicated it, adorning it splendidly with various other things and with statues, which he asked from Caesar as though to return them. And, when they were afterwards demanded back, he did not return them, using a witty turn;

42.6. for, as though he had not enough servants, ‘Send some,’ he said, ‘and take them up’; and so Caesar, shrinking from the sacrilege, let them remain dedicated.

43.1. These things happened in this time; but in the consulship of Appius Claudius and Gaius Norbanus—the first to whom two quaestors each were assigned—the multitude rose in faction against the tax-collectors, who pressed most grievously upon them, and came to blows both with those men and with their assistants and the soldiers who helped them exact the money;

43.2. and sixty-seven praetors, appointed one after another, held office. And someone, chosen quaestor among the boys, then on the next day entered among the ephebes; and another, inscribed into the senate,

43.3. wished to fight as a gladiator; and he was prevented from doing this, and it was forbidden besides that a senator fight as a gladiator or a slave act as lictor, or that the burnings of the dead take place within fifteen stades from the city.

43.4. Many portentous things, indeed, had befallen even before that time (for, among other things, oil welled up beside the Tiber), and many also then. For the hut of Romulus was burned from some sacred rite which the pontiffs had performed in it; and a statue of Virtue, standing before certain gates, fell upon its face, and certain men, possessed by the Mother of the Gods, said that the goddess was angry

43.5. with them. And the Sibylline verses were read on this account; and when these too said the same things, and bade the image be carried down to the sea and purified by its water, the goddess receded a very great distance from the land into the deep and lingered in it and was scarcely at last brought back,

43.6. and no small fear seized the Romans from this too, and they did not take heart before four palm-trees sprang up about her temple and in the Forum. These things, then, happened at that time, and Caesar married

44.1. Livia. She was a daughter of Livius Drusus, who had been among those posted on the list and had made away with himself after the defeat in Macedonia, and the wife of Nero, with whom she had fled, as has been said; and she was

44.2. six months gone with child by him. When Caesar hesitated, then, and asked the pontiffs whether it was lawful for him to marry her while she was pregnant, they answered that, if the conception were in doubt, the marriage ought to be deferred, but, it being acknowledged, nothing prevented its taking place at once—either, perhaps, finding this really in the ancestral usages, or in any case, even if they did not find it, saying so.

44.3. And her husband himself gave her away, like a father. And something of this kind too happened at their feast: a certain little child of those whisperers whom the women, generally naked, rear for sport, seeing Livia reclining apart with Caesar and Nero apart with another, came to her and said, ‘What are you doing here, mistress? For your husband,’ pointing to him,

44.4. ‘is reclining there.’ These things, then, were so done; and the woman, now living with Caesar, bore Claudius Drusus Nero. And Caesar both took him up and sent him to his father, inscribing this very thing in the records, that ‘Caesar restored the child born to Livia his wife to Nero its

44.5. father.’ And Nero, dying not long after, left Caesar himself as guardian both of this child and of Tiberius. The crowd, then, both noised abroad many other things about this, and said that to the fortunate three-month children are born, so that the saying even passed into a proverb.

45.1. In the city, then, these things were happening; but about this same time Bogud the Moor, sailing into Spain, whether by Antony’s instruction or of his own judgement, did much harm and suffered much in turn;

45.2. and in this, when his subjects about Tingis rose against him, he both withdrew from Spain and did not recover his own country; for the partisans of Caesar in Spain, and Bocchus, who joined them, became stronger than he.

45.3. And he withdrew to Antony, while Bocchus at once seized his kingdom and afterwards had it confirmed by Caesar; and citizenship was given to the Tingitani.

45.4. And in this time, and even before, Sextus and Caesar made war; for, inasmuch as they had made the agreement not willingly nor of choice but under compulsion, they remained in it, so to speak, no time at all, but at once, breaking the truce, came at variance.

45.5. For they were going to make war in any case, even if they had found no excuse; but the causes for them were these. Menas, in Sardinia, being even then still a kind of governor, was suspected by Sextus both because of the release of Helenus and because he had held communication with Caesar, and was somehow slandered too by his peers out of envy of his

45.6. power. And thereupon, when summoned by him, on the pretext of giving account concerning the grain and the money he had administered, he did not obey, but, seizing those sent for this purpose, killed them, and, sending heralds beforehand to Caesar, delivered up to him the island and the fleet and the rest of the army and himself.

45.7. And Caesar, seeing him gladly, since he said that Sextus too was receiving deserters contrary to the agreements and was building triremes and holding garrisons in Italy, neither gave him up when demanded and besides held him in great honour, adorning him with golden rings

45.8. and inscribing him into the order of the knights. And the matter of the rings is this. To none of the Romans of old—not only of those who had once been slaves, but not even of those reared in a free family—was it permitted to use golden rings save the senators and the knights, as I have said;

45.9. and on this account they are given, in token of honour, to such freedmen as he who holds the power may wish—though they otherwise wear gold—as being better than is fitting for freedman rank and able even to be knights.

46.1. This, then, is so; but Sextus, both charging Caesar with these things, and that Achaia had been ill-treated and that the agreements were carried out neither with him nor with those who had returned, sent Menecrates into Italy, who was himself a freedman of his, and through him ravaged both other parts of Campania and

46.2. Volturnum. Caesar, then, learning this, took up the documents of the agreement from the Vestal Virgins, and sent for Antony and Lepidus. And Lepidus did not at once obey him, but Antony came to Brundisium (for he chanced to be still in Greece),

46.3. yet, before joining Caesar, who was in Tyrrhenia, fearing because a wolf had entered his headquarters and destroyed soldiers, sailed back to Greece, making the affairs of the Parthians, as though

46.4. pressing, his pretext. At this, then, Caesar, although he thought himself altogether abandoned by him, that he might be involved alone in the war, was nevertheless not openly angry; but Sextus noised it abroad that Antony did not approve of him, and held more eagerly to what lay before him, and at last both sailed against Italy and, making descents, did much

46.5. harm and suffered much in turn. And in this a sea-battle took place near Cumae between Menecrates and Calvisius Sabinus; and in it more of Caesar’s ships—inasmuch as he was opposing seamen—were lost, but Menecrates, falling in with Menas out of rivalry and being destroyed, afforded Sextus a counterbalancing

46.6. misfortune. And on this account neither did Sextus lay claim to any of the victory, and Caesar consoled himself

47.1. for the defeat. And, since he chanced to be at Rhegium at this time, the partisans of Sextus, fearing lest he cross over into Sicily, and being somewhat despondent at the death of Menecrates, set off

47.2. from Cumae. Sabinus, then, pursuing them, came as far as Scyllaeum, the promontory of Italy, without difficulty; but, as he was rounding it, a great wind fell upon him and dashed many of the ships against the headland, sank others in the open, and scattered all the rest.

47.3. Learning this, then, Sextus sent the fleet against them, putting Apollophanes in charge. And he, finding Caesar sailing along thereabouts, in order to cross over into Sicily with Sabinus, darted at him. And thereupon Caesar, mooring his ships together and arraying the heavy infantry upon them, at first beat him off very gallantly;

47.4. for the ships, drawn up prow to prow, allowed him to make no safe ramming, but, being both stouter and higher, harmed those who approached the more, and the heavy infantry, coming to close quarters with them, proved much

47.5. superior. But afterwards, when Apollophanes transferred the wounded and those continually worn out to other ships drawn up behind, by backing water, and took on fresh men in their stead, and made continual approaches and used fire-bearing missiles, he was put to flight, and, fleeing for refuge to the land, came to anchor.

47.6. And since even so the enemy pressed upon them, some suddenly cut their cables and darted out against them unexpectedly. And this prevented Apollophanes from burning all the ships and taking some in tow, as did the fact that night came on upon the action.

48.1. When this had so happened, an extraordinary wind, falling on the next day upon Caesar and Sabinus as they lay at anchor together, made their former misfortune appear small. And Sabinus’

48.2. fleet suffered less; for Menas, being long since a seaman, foresaw the storm and at once put his ships out to sea, and, holding them by slack anchors, that the cables, being strained, might not break, rowed against the very wind, and so neither strained any cable and remained always in the same place, backing with the oars against all that he was driven off by the wind.

48.3. But the others, inasmuch as they had been terribly worn out the day before and did not yet know the sea accurately, were cast upon the land that was near and lost many ships. And the night, as before it had aided them not least, so then most of all harmed them; for the wind, becoming great even through it, both tore the vessels from their anchors and

48.4. thrust them upon the rocks. And these were thus destroyed, and the sailors and marines, able neither to foresee anything through the darkness nor to hear through the uproar and the echo from the mountains—especially as the wind clashed against

48.5. them—perished besides in vain. And on this account Caesar despaired of Sicily, and was content to make a guard of the seaboard mainland, while Sextus was lifted up still more, and believed himself truly to be a son of Poseidon, and put on a dark-blue robe, and cast into the strait horses—and, as some say, even men—alive.

48.6. And he himself plundered and harried Italy, and sent Apollophanes into Libya. And him Menas, pursuing and overtaking, harmed; and, while the islanders about Sicily were going over to Sextus, Caesar seized the Liparaeans beforehand, and removed them from the island and brought them into Campania, and there in Neapolis compelled them to dwell as long as

49.1. the war should last. And in this he built vessels throughout, so to speak, all Italy, and gathered rowers—at first slaves from his friends, as though they gave them willingly, and afterwards from the rest, both the senators and the knights and the wealthy commons—and enrolled heavy infantry, and gathered money both from the citizens and from the allies and the subjects, both those in Italy and all those outside.

49.2. And both this year and the next he spent on the building of the ships and the gathering and training of the rowers, himself overseeing and arranging these and other matters both in Italy and in Gaul (for there was a movement among them), and entrusting

49.3. to Agrippa the equipment of the fleet. For he sent for him, while he was making war on the Gauls who had revolted—at which time he was the second of the Romans to cross the Rhine for war—and honoured him with the gift of a triumph and bade him work out

49.4. and train the fleet. And he (he was consul with Lucius Gallus) did not send the triumph, thinking it shameful to glory while Caesar had fared ill, but worked out the fleet very zealously. For the vessels were being made in all the seaboard of Italy;

49.5. but since no shore was found safe for them to anchor in (for the greater part of that coast was even then harbourless), he both conceived and accomplished a magnificent work, which I, having described at greater length, shall both set forth in my narrative and explain the other things now existing about it.

50.1. In Campanian Cumae there is a crescent-shaped place between Misenum and Puteoli; for it is enclosed by small and bare mountains, save a few,

50.2. and has a threefold gulf-like sea. For the one is outside and toward the cities, the other is divided off from it by a small barrier, and another within the very recess is seen lake-like. And this one is called Avernus, and the middle one Lucrine; for the outer, being part of the Tyrrhenian, pays the appellation to

50.3. that. In this sea, then, the inner one of either, by breaking through with narrow channels then the barrier separating the Lucrine from the open sea on both sides, beside the mainland itself, Agrippa made

50.4. harbours most fit for anchorage. And while they were working, a certain statue above the Avernus—whether of Calypso, to whom they assign the place, into which they say Odysseus also sailed, or of some other heroine—was covered with sweat, like a human body. And what this signified I cannot say; but the other things I beheld in that place worthy of relation I shall tell.

51.1. These mountains, being by the inner seas, have springs at once of much fire and of water mingled with it; and neither by itself is found anywhere (for neither does the fire appear by itself nor the cold water by itself), but from their intercourse the water is heated and the fire moistened;

51.2. and the former goes through the foothills to the sea into the cisterns, while its vapour they conduct up through pipes into upper chambers, and there they take a steam-bath with it; for the higher it runs up from the earth and the water, the drier it becomes. Costly structures, then, have been built about both, and they are most suitable both for the conduct of life and for healing.

51.3. These things, then, that mountain furnishes, and besides a nature of earth of the following kind. The fire having no power to burn (for by its consort the water all its flaming part is quenched), but being yet able to separate and dissolve what falls in its way, it comes about that the fatty part of the earth is melted out by it, while the rough and

51.4. bony part, so to speak, is left behind. The masses, then, necessarily become full of holes, and, exposed to drought, dissolve into dust, but, when kneaded with water and lime, set together, and, as long as they are in the moist, they harden and turn to stone. And the reason is that the brittle part of them is by the fire, being of like nature to it, both intensified and broken, but by the mingling of moisture is cooled, and thereupon, being compressed throughout within, becomes

51.5. indissoluble. Such, then, is Baiae; and to it then Agrippa, as soon as he had made the channels, gathered the ships and the rowers, and decked the former over and trained the latter to row on platforms.

52.1. But those in Rome were troubled both by portents. For, among many other things, it was announced to them that many dolphins about Aspis, the city of Africa, fought with one another

52.2. and were destroyed; and indeed near the city itself blood flowed from heaven and birds carried it off. And when, at the festival of the Romans, none of the senators feasted on the Capitol, as was customary, this too they reckoned in the account of a

52.3. portent. And what befell Livia was for her a matter of pleasure, but instilled fear into the rest; for an eagle dropped into her lap a white bird bearing a sprig of laurel with its fruit. And, since the sign seemed to be no small one, she both kept the bird with care and planted the

52.4. laurel. And it, taking root, grew so that it sufficed for a very long time even for those who afterwards sent the triumphs, and Livia was destined both to take into her bosom the power of Caesar and to prevail over him in all

53.1. things. But the rest in the city were strongly troubled by these things and by the changes of the magistrates; for not only the consuls and the praetors, but even the quaestors, were substituted one for another, and this happened over a

53.2. period of time. The reason was that all were eager not so much to hold office longer at home as to be counted among those who had held office, and thereby to receive both the honours and the powers outside. So no one any longer was chosen for a fixed time, but so as both to take up the name of the office and to lay it down whenever it seemed good to those who held the

53.3. power; and many even did both on the same day. There are some too who altogether abandoned the offices through poverty; for those who were then with Sextus, as having been dishonoured, forsooth, by some justice, I do not

53.4. mention. When, however, a certain Marcus Oppius was deliberating, through want, to give up his aedileship (for both he and his father were among the proscribed), the multitude did not permit him, but contributed money to him both for the other necessaries of life and for the expense of the

53.5. office. And a report holds that some even of the malefactors, entering the very theatre in masks, as though to act some part, contributed money along with the rest. And he was thus both loved by the crowd while living, and, dying not long after, was conveyed to the Campus Martius

53.6. and there both burned and buried; but the senate, vexed at all the zeal of the multitude about him, took up his bones, as lying impiously in the sacred place, persuaded by the pontiffs, although it had buried many others there both before and afterwards.

54.1. And in this same time Antony too came again into Italy from Syria, ostensibly to share in the war against Sextus because of Caesar’s misfortunes, yet did not

54.2. remain with him, but, having come rather for the spying out of his affairs than for the sake of any action, gave him ships and promised to send others, in return for which he received heavy infantry, and himself set off as though

54.3. to make war on the Parthians. But before he sailed away they charged one another, first through their friends and afterwards through themselves; and, since they had as yet no leisure to make war, they were reconciled after a fashion, Octavia chiefly bringing this

54.4. about. And, that they might be bound by more ties of kinship, Caesar betrothed his daughter to Antyllus, Antony’s son, and Antony betrothed his own daughter, born to him of Octavia, to Domitius, although he had been one of Caesar’s murderers and had been posted among those to perish.

54.5. These things they at once feigned toward one another; for they were not going to do any of them, but were acting a part for the need of present affairs. Indeed Antony at once sent Octavia herself back from Corcyra into Italy, that she might not share his danger as he made war on the

54.6. Parthians. Nevertheless, at that time they did these things thus, and deposed Sextus from both the priesthood and the consulship to which he had been appointed, and entrusted to themselves the leadership for another five years, since the former had expired. And after this Antony hastened to Syria, while Caesar set about the

54.7. war. And in all else it went according to his judgement, but Menas, being by nature faithless and ever paying court to the stronger, and besides being vexed that he held no office but was subordinate to Sabinus, deserted again to Sextus.