It took about 10 days for Octavius to learn
of his great-uncle Caesar's death. In those 10 days, the world had changed. Caesar had been laid to rest in a fiery funeral,
riots had erupted on the streets of Rome, and the contents of Caesar's will had been
revealed to the public. But Octavius didn't know any of this. All he knew was that Caesar was dead. Octavius was in Illyricum overseeing preparations
for Caesar's eastern campaigns. Those campaigns were probably off now, but
what did that mean? The people around Octavius advised him to
take up the nearby legions and avenge his great-uncle's death, but Octavius hesitated. He didn't know what the political situation
was like back in Rome. If he started moving legions around, he ran
the risk of being declared an Enemy of the People by the Senate. Octavius decided to return to Rome as a private
citizen. This was perhaps risky, but he didn't see
a better option. Once he properly understood the political
situation, he could decide what to do next. On the road to Rome, he began receiving a
flood of letters. Caesar's will had been opened. Octavius was pretty much the last person to
learn that he had been named Caesar's heir, giving him the rights to most of Caesar's
Scrooge McDuck sized fortune. As an expression of this passing of the torch,
Caesar posthumously adopted Octavius as his son. When he got the news, we're told that Octavius
broke down and cried. Octavius's mother wrote him a letter advising
him to return to Rome immediately, but to take the side roads, hide is identity, and
be on the look out for assassins. His step-father separately advised him to
renounce his adoption, take the money, and to retire from public life as a monstrously
wealthy man. With a lot of conflicting advice coming his
way, Octavius came up with his own plan. He would accept the adoption. From this moment forward, he would go by the
name of Gaius Julius Caesar, the same as his adoptive father. This is hella confusing, and so historians
have over the years decided to assign this new Caesar with the name Octavianus, or Octavian
for short, which is just the past tense version of the name Octavius. But it's important to remember that this is
solely a convention among historians, and as far as his contemporaries were concerned,
he was a second Caesar. When Octavian landed in Italy, he appeared
in public under his new name. The crowds hailed him as his father's son. The Senate and the people were put on notice. The heir to Caesar was returning to Rome. Back in the capitol, things were moving quickly. Antony and Lepidus had already pressured many
of Caesar's assassins into leaving the city, which was good for them, but now they needed
to look inward. If the Caesarian faction was to survive, the
Antony-Lepidus alliance had to remain strong. As a first step, Antony's daughter was engaged
to marry Lepidus's son, both of whom were young children. That was a good start, but it was all symbolic. What else could they do? There was the matter of the Pontifex Maximus. The position of Rome's chief priest was a
lifetime appointment, previously held by Caesar. But here's the thing. Some time within the last year or so, the
Senate passed some minor piece of legislation that said that Caesar's son would succeed
him as Pontifex Maximus. Octavian. This was a problem. Antony did some quick thinking and argued
that since Octavian hadn't physically come to Rome and made his adoption official yet,
legally speaking, Caesar had no son. At least for the next few days. Antony hastily called an election and made
sure that his partner Lepidus took Caesar's place as Pontifex Maximus. The fact that it was Lepidus, and not Antony,
offers us an insight that maybe Antony considered himself a junior partner in this alliance. The riots and the killing and the political
uncertainty had everybody on edge. Violent mobs were sometimes known to target
specific politicians or threaten to burn the entire city down. There were already whispers of another Civil
War. Shops closed, foot traffic dried up, and a
vast number Romans went into hiding. The Senator Cicero observed that "even the
mice are leaving." Many of Cicero's political allies had already
fled the city, and urged him to do the same. Cicero agonized over this decision, seeking
advice from many of his friends abroad. In the end he decided to stay in Rome and
put his own life at risk so that he could fight in the Senate to avert another Civil
War. Friendly Neighbourhood Historian Tom Holland
calls this "the most courageous decision of his life." By April, Octavian arrived in Rome. The Antony-Lepidus alliance had a legitimate
claim to the leadership of the Caesarian faction, but so did Octavian. They immediately began butting heads. Cicero writes that Antony started producing
old decrees from Caesar that happened to back up whatever he was pushing at the moment. Cicero suspected that they were all forgeries,
but he couldn't prove it. He also noticed that Antony was really dragging
his feet when it came to handing over Caesar's fortune. It was Octavian's job as Caesar's primary
heir to fulfill the terms of Caesar's will, which included the approximately 3 months'
wages promised to every adult male Roman citizen. So long as Antony controlled Caesar's money,
Octavian couldn't do this. So instead, he ignored Antony. He made the rounds to many of Caesar's old
allies, asking for favours and taking out personal loans. He couldn't raise the total amount this way,
but he raised enough to get the ball rolling. People began receiving their money. But the most important aspect of this is that
he let the public know that he was putting his own credibility on the line so that he
could fulfill Caesar's commitment to the people. This made him wildly popular virtually overnight. If Antony's goal in dragging his feet was
to damage Octavian's reputation, his plan backfired badly. He would eventually release Caesar's fortune,
making Octavian one of the richest people on Earth. By the summer of the year 44, Roman politics
had completely realigned. Antony was still technically running things
as Consul, but Cicero was now the leader of a vocal anti-Antonian faction in the Senate. As Antony attempted to assert his dominance,
Cicero fought him tooth and nail. The big debate over the summer was over what
to do with the province of Cisalpine Gaul. Next year, Antony was due to take over as
the governor of Macedonia. This was a great province, it came with six
legions attached to it. But it wasn't the best province. The best province, given Rome's recent history,
was Cisalpine Gaul. It came with a couple legions, a vibrant tax
base, and most importantly it was close to Rome. The threat of crossing the Rubicon was everything
now. Whoever was the governor of Cisalpine Gaul
had the opportunity to dominate Roman politics from a distance. But here's the thing. Decimus, one of Caesar's assassins, was going
to be the governor of Cisalpine Gaul. In fact, he'd been handpicked for this job
by Caesar shortly before his death. But Antony didn't care about that. He wanted Decimus gone. He wanted that province. He proposed a swap in the Senate. Macedonia for Cisalpine Gaul. But he had some conditions. First, Antony wanted to bring over the six
legions from Macedonia and keep the two in Cisalpine Gaul, giving him a massive army. Second, he wanted his brother Gaius Antonius
to take his place as the governor of Macedonia, leaving Decimus with just his toga in his
hands. It's pretty clear what was going on here. It's exactly the kind of thing that Cicero
feared. Antony wanted to be another Caesar. Another Civil War. Cicero fought this request in the Senate,
but people were exhausted, and nobody was prepared to go nuclear over a request to transfer
provinces. He lost. The Senate sided with Antony. But Decimus didn't take this lying down. He said that Caesar had personally hand-picked
him as governor, and he seemed to remember the Senate passing a resolution saying that
all of Caesar's legislation and appointments were locked in place. Was Antony interested in tearing up that agreement? Because that would open a whole can of worms. As an act of defiance, Decimus took his legions
and marched on some Gallic tribes in the Alps, winning a minor victory. The legions hailed him as Imperator. He wrote to Cicero asking if there was enough
support in the Senate to get him a Triumph for his victory. Some people just don't have an instinct for
politics, because there definitely wasn't, the Senate had just voted to take away his
province. But Cicero told a polite lie and said he'd
look into it. So the Senate under Antony had voted to take
away Decimus's province. Decimus responded by saying that they didn't
have that authority. Things were at a bit of a stand-off. In June, all of the major anti-Antonians got
together in central Italy for a big, important meeting. The following people were in attendance: Cicero,
Brutus, Brutus's wife Porcia, Brutus's mother Servilia, Cassius, Cassius's wife Tertulla,
and a Conservative senator named Favonius. Decimus would have been invited, but he was
obviously busy. Cassius and his wife Tertulla were running
late, so the meeting got started without them. Together, they considered an offer from the
Senate that would put Brutus and Cassius in charge of grain collection in the provinces
of Sicily and Asia Minor. This was basically a way to give Brutus and
Cassius an excuse to stay away from Rome for a couple of years. Cicero told Brutus that they should take the
offer. If they were going to continue avoiding Rome,
they might as well make themselves useful. He could hold things down in the Senate. Brutus was indecisive. He told Cicero that it was always his plan
to return to Rome as soon as possible. Cicero responded by saying that it was not
safe for Caesar's assassins to show their faces in the city. He told Brutus that his survival was paramount,
since he, as the leader of the assassins, was the Republic's only defense against tyranny. This was blatant flattery, and who knows if
Cicero even meant a word of it, but it seemed to be effective on Brutus. Cassius and his wife then rolled in there
like a couple of tornadoes. Cassius got right to the point, "supervising
grain collection is a slap in the face!" He then launched into a litany of all of their
squandered opportunities since the assassination, and in particular he criticized Decimus for
not being aggressive enough in Cisalpine Gaul. Cassius informed the group that he would be
turning down the grain collection job. Instead, he would be heading to the province
of Syria, where he was supposed to take over as governor next year. If the Senate wanted to take his province
away, let 'em try. Brutus was like fine. If Cassius was doing that, he would head to
Asia Minor to help out another prominent Conspirator, Trebonius. Brutus's mother Servilia spoke up and said
that if that was their decision, she would persuade some friendly Senators to get the
offer rescinded. With their decision made, Cassius continued
to hammer away at the absent Decimus for letting Antony get the better of him. Cicero tried to cool things down, telling
everybody that it was useless to dwell on the past. He then began to, with no self-awareness,
point fingers at everybody else in the room, asking each of them why they were not more
decisive in the days following the Ides of March. Why on Earth did they barricade themselves
on the Capitoline Hill and hand the initiative to Antony? What was the purpose of that? Servilia cut him off and shut down the debate. Nobody was really happy, but at least now
they had a plan. Cicero would continue to work the Senate in
Rome, Brutus would head to Asia Minor, and Cassius would head to Syria. From these powerful positions, they would
have the strength to support Decimus against Antony. In the days following the meeting, Cicero
privately railed against his allies for being completely useless ever since the Ides of
March. He wrote in one letter that "in good truth
I found a ship with timbers all gone to pieces. No plan, no system, no method!" By the autumn of 44 B.C.E., Cicero had switched
to a much more aggressive posture. He made a series of speeches and distributed
a series of pamphlets that directly denounced Antony as a tyrant. These are known as The Philippics, and they
survive to this day. Another one of Cicero's political innovations
was that he begun to publicly praise Octavian. If he could split the Caesarian faction between
Antony and Octavian, he might be able to oust Antony in a moment of weakness. Octavian welcomed the support of Cicero, and
used the opportunity to ramp up his own criticism of Antony. Over this period, Cicero and Octavian got
really close. Octavian began calling the older man "father"
as a sign of respect. The opportunity to split the Caesarian faction
came sooner than anybody expected. In October of 44, when Antony left Rome to
inspect some legions, Octavian used his newfound wealth to raise a private army and march on
Rome. It wasn't a very big army, only 3,000 retired
soldiers, but it was enough to occupy the city. And just like that, a Civil War had begun. It was incredibly sudden, and... strange. Nobody had bothered to make any official declarations
or anything, it just... happened. Antony approached from the south with those
legions he was inspecting, six in total, 30,000 soldiers if they were at full strength. By November, Octavian had abandoned Rome and
fled north, and Antony had re-occupied the capitol. But Octavian quickly learned that two of those
six legions under Antony were unhappy to be marching against the son of Caesar. At their first opportunity, they abandoned
Antony and came over to Octavian's side. Antony's first instinct was to have Octavian
declared an Enemy of the People, but with several of his legions defecting, and Cicero
leading a vocal anti-Antonian faction in the Senate, he wasn't sure if such a thing would
pass. Both sides now appealed to Decimus for support. With his two legions, he could easily tip
the balance in either direction. But there was never any doubt. Decimus sided with Octavian. Cicero ramped up his attacks in the Senate. All of the pieces were falling into place. But then Antony surprised everybody. He marched north around Octavian's legions,
and headed straight for Decimus in Cisalpine Gaul. Antony's legions outnumbered Decimus's by
2 to 1, but honestly half of those under Decimus were straight up rookies, so really it was
more like 4 to 1. Cicero urgently wrote to Brutus, who was currently
in Greece, urging him to bring all available legions to Decimus's aid. Brutus was kinda baffled by this. Had they all lost their minds? Had they really thrown in their lot with the
son of Caesar? If the Caesarian faction was fighting amongst
themselves, that was GOOD! Just sit back and wait for the dust to settle! What were they thinking? Brutus was horribly out of touch with how
quickly things were changing in Rome. Whether he meant to do it or not, he had just
stabbed Decimus in the back. In Cisalpine Gaul, Antony demanded Decimus's
surrender. Decimus refused. Within a matter of days, Cicero worked his
magic in the Senate and passed two pivotal pieces of legislation. First, he got Octavian appointed pro-Praetor,
which meant that he had the right to command an army while still being answerable to the
Consuls. It legitimized his illegal actions up to this
point. Second, all governors, including Decimus,
were to keep their current provinces for the foreseeable future. Anybody trying to take away anybody else's
province, for any reason, would be in violation of the law. Cicero and the Senate sent a stern letter
to Antony instructing him to stand down. He refused. At the beginning of the new year, Antony's
term as Consul expired and two new Consuls took office, former Caesarians who were now
loyal to Cicero. The two new Consuls took command of four legions
and joined up with Octavian in central Italy. Together, they all marched north to Decimus's
aid. Cicero instructed one of the Consuls to assume
overall command, and the other to split off and raise additional legions. The Consuls followed Cicero's orders, which
tells you a lot. Decimus didn't mess around, and quickly moved
to occupy the city of Mutina. He mobilized the entire population in preparation
for a siege, and before too long he had several years of food in storage, and was training
a new legion made up of locals. It was a smart strategic move. Antony was way out on a limb, and Decimus
had Cicero and the Senate on his side. All he had to do was drag things out until
friendly legions arrived. Antony must have finally realized that he
was in a sticky situation, because his next move was to send a peace offer to Cicero. He would withdraw from Cisalpine Gaul, he
said, if the Senate would agree to grant him the province of Transalpine Gaul, which was
all the territory north of here, basically all of Caesar's conquests from the Gallic
Wars. Obviously Cicero said no. The 1-year anniversary of Caesar's assassination
came and went with very little fanfare. In April, Octavian and one of the Consuls
arrived in Cisalpine Gaul. They outnumbered Antony 7 legions to 4, but
since many of their legions were new and inexperienced, and Antony's were not, they judged that the
two sides were basically equally matched. They decided to wait for the other Consul
to show up with four additional legions. But Antony surprised everybody for a second
time. He abandoned the Siege of Mutina and marched
south, back around Octavian and the one Consul, and set up between the two armies. Antony set an ambush, and tricked the Consul
to the south into attacking through some wetlands. The fighting was exhausting, but by the end
of the day Antony's legions had stormed the enemy camp. The Consul was killed in the fighting. Octavian and the other Consul sent help, but
they arrived too late. There was another minor clash, but Antony
and his exhausted legions withdrew back to the north. Octavian and the only remaining Consul decided
not to delay any longer. They marched to relieve the Siege of Mutina. Antony's exhausted legions put up a fight,
but when Decimus opened the city gates and attacked from the other direction he was forced
to retreat. This battle happened on Decimus's birthday,
which is not important, but it is funny. Speaking of our collective unceasing march
toward death, that other Consul died during the battle. That means that both Roman Consuls had died
in battle, something that had not happened in two centuries, not since the Punic Wars. With news of the victory, Cicero had the Senate
name Antony an Enemy of the People. Can we just pause for a moment to appreciate
what Cicero had accomplished here? A year ago, it looked like Antony was about
to become a second Caesar. Instead, Cicero implemented a political strategy
that split the Caesarian faction and ended with Antony being declared an Enemy of the
Republic. What an achievement! Antony retreated north across the Alps and
joined up with Lepidus. Decimus followed close behind. Meanwhile, Brutus was in Greece. Through diplomacy, he had used this time to
gather the support of all the provincial governors from Illyricum to Syria. This was all highly illegal of course, but
Cicero eventually secured for him an actual command, which gave the whole thing some legitimacy. Through this process, Brutus captured Antony's
brother, Gaius Antonius. Cassius was still in Syria, in command of
8 legions. Some clever thinking allowed him to intercept
a Roman army headed from Egypt to Italy, bringing his total up to 12 legions. Cassius pressed Brutus to go on the attack,
but Brutus remained cautious. He argued that since they had broad support
across the Empire, there was no need to force one decisive battle. Much better to just let the Caesarians bleed
each other dry. I do my best to be generous to these historical
figures who were acting with imperfect information, but I will point out that during this crisis,
Brutus's first instinct always seemed to be "do nothing." That's an alarming trait. I wonder how different things would have been
if Cassius had been the one put in charge. By the summer of 43, Octavian began to complain
to Cicero about the empty Consulships. He said that it was impossible to prosecute
a war without leadership at the top. He said that, wait for it, *he* should be
named a replacement Consul. It's not actually clear that this was necessary
at all. Elections were already ramping up for next
year, the Senate was functioning property, the armies in the field were winning, what
was the big emergency? Cicero and the Senate denied Octavian's request. And then, just like that, Octavian marched
on Rome. Again. Things are getting pretty wacky, so let's
take a second to recap. Decimus was attacking Antony. Cicero and the Senate were supporting Decimus
and attacking Antony. Brutus and Cassius were *supposed* to be attacking
Antony, but since they distrusted Octavian, they were keeping their powder dry. Octavian *had* been attacking Antony, but
now he was attacking Cicero and the Senate. It was starting to look like a five-sided
Civil War. Cicero and the Senate called upon four legions
in North Africa to defend the capitol, but all four went over to son of Caesar. Octavian sent some centurions into the city
of Rome to negotiate. According to one account, maybe embellishing
a bit for dramatic effect, the lead centurion approached a group of Senators, rested his
hand on the hilt of his sword, and said, "if the Senate does not make Octavian a Consul,
this will." The Senate called special elections, but every
knew the results in advance. Octavian and one of his cousins were elected
Consuls, and took office immediately. One of Octavian's first acts was to condemn
Caesar's assassins, officially ending the grand compromise that was set up immediately
after Caesar's assassination. If you remember, the assassins were granted
amnesty in exchange for ratification of Caesar's political acts. That was all over now. Octavian had altered the deal. Cicero was distraught. He bitterly wrote to Decimus, telling him
that "the Senate was my weapon and it has fallen to pieces in my hand." He also wrote to Brutus in Greece, telling
him to Rome as soon a humanly possible. Incredibly, Brutus refused. He seemed to believe that he and Cicero were
having some minor disagreement over tactics. He was mistaken. What Cicero was actually saying was that he
had lost the war. His attempt to split the Caesarian faction
had failed. In defeat, Cicero left the city in Octavian's
hands and retired to the Italian countryside. As Consul, Octavian opened up negotiations
with Antony. In doing so, he stabbed Cicero, Decimus, Cassius,
Brutus, and the entire Roman Senate in the back. Antony and Lepidus spent all summer recruiting
soldiers, and by the autumn they re-entered Cisalpine Gaul with 18 legions. Decimus had no choice but to pull back. On his difficult trek back through the Alps,
most of his army deserted him. His initial plan was to head east and join
forces with Brutus and Cassius, but without an army there was very little point in doing
that. Instead, he decided to head north. Decimus had spent the better part of a decade
campaigning with Caesar in Gaul, he had plenty of allies up there, he was fluent in the language,
perhaps he could pull some strings and raise an army. But apparently when Decimus reached the Rhine
river, everybody, even his bodyguards, abandoned him. Without protection, it wasn't safe for Decimus
to be in Gaul, and so he changed plans once more, disguised himself as a local, and started
making his way east to Brutus. But Decimus's string of bad luck would not
end. While going through a totally routine checkpoint
in Cisalpine Gaul, a Roman soldier recognized his face. Decimus was captured, and Antony demanded
his head. Within a few days, he got it. Late in the year, Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus
met near the border of Cisalpine Gaul and Italy to negotiate a deal. This deal would become known to historians
as the Second Triumvirate. Unlike the First Triumvirate between Caesar,
Pompey, and Crassus, this was official, backed up by the full force of the law. All three Triumvirs would be awarded Dictatorial
powers for 5 years. In addition to this, each would be responsible
for governing a portion of the Western half of Rome's Empire. Remember, Brutus and Cassius still controlled
the east. Antony would control Gaul, which is exactly
what he had wanted since the beginning. Lepidus would control Spain. Octavian would control North Africa and the
Mediterranean Islands like Sicily and Sardinia. You can tell from this agreement that Octavian
was the junior partner here. The Triumvirate also gave the three the ability
to make law without consulting the Senate or the People of Rome. This is, frankly, what Cicero had feared all
along. Unchecked authoritarian power. A Roman monarchy with three heads. Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian then ordered
a purge of Rome's political class. The Romans called these "Proscriptions." This was not without precedent, the Dictator
Sulla had ordered large proscriptions 40 years earlier. But this was regarded as a traumatic event,
not only to Rome's political class but to Caesar personally, who was careful to avoid
doing the same thing when he came to power. But Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian were young,
and had no memory of Sulla's purge. They didn't care. Their enemies had to go. The way proscriptions worked is that every
day, a list would be posted in a public place with the names of those who had been proscribed. Anybody on the list was instantly stripped
of their citizenship and was no longer under the protection of Roman law. Any citizen who ratted out or murdered a proscribed
person was entitled to seize a portion of their wealth, with the rest going to the state. The proscriptions were truly a repugnant practice,
they turned a whole generation of murderers into millionaires. Of course many fled as soon as their names
appeared on the proscription lists, but the promise of wealth completely destroyed friendships
and tore families apart. It was horrible. As much as a third of the Roman Senate was
proscribed, as well as thousands of other rich citizens. In fact, the historian Appian writes that
some were proscribed simply because they were rich. That's bad... I... think? No, yeah that's bad, murder's bad. We're anti-murder in this house. There was an ongoing negotiation between Antony,
Lepidus, and Octavian as to who would appear on the proscription lists. In the end they were all forced to compromise
and give up people who they would have preferred to save. Antony gave up his uncle. Lepidus gave up his brother. Octavian gave up Cicero, the man that he once
called "father." Antony was the one who insisted. On December 7th, 43 B.C.E., a small group
lead by a military tribune and a centurion showed up at Cicero's villa. The doors were locked, but they busted in. After interrogating some workers, they learned
that Cicero was on his way to the sea. They caught up with him on the road. He knew that he was caught. He told his entourage to stop. They found him in a reclined position, reading. He spoke to his killers. "I am stopping here." He turned to the lead centurion. "Come here, soldier. There's nothing proper about what you're doing,
but at least make sure you cut off my head properly." The centurion hesitated. Cicero stuck out his neck and indicated what
he wanted done. The centurion slit his throat. The group of killers then cut the head and
the hands off of Cicero's body, and sent them to Antony as proof. Antony nailed Cicero's hands to the speaking
platform outside the Senate House, the same hands that wrote all those pamphlets opposing
him just one year ago. It is... so upsetting that Cicero went out
this way. He deserved better. Historian Anthony Everitt calls him the greatest
statesman in Roman history. I love Cicero, I'm in that camp too. Years later, when Octavian was an old man,
he caught his grandson reading something that Cicero had written. His grandson had some vague notion that this
was some old enemy of his grandfather's, and so in a panic he tried to hide the writing
under his clothes. Octavian saw what he was trying to do, and
had him hand it over. For a long time, he stood there reading the
words of Cicero, written in another era. In time, he handed the writing back to his
grandson, saying, "my child, this was a learned man, and a lover of his country." If it's any consolation, Brutus retaliated
by killing Antony's brother.
Really is sad how Cicero ended.. How was it, that this powerful senator that could have been the one to restore the Senate to its former glory never seemed to have much power outside of the Senate? Was he just not rich enough?
HBO Rome series may be of interest, it was the most expensive series ever made at the time.
https://youtu.be/rtUQqiIa0oI
https://youtu.be/K9ahNR19myM
CICERO WOULD NEVER BREAK THE LAW, LISTENER
Damn Octavian was cold blooded
Historia Civilis for Imperator!
Just when you thought little squares couldnt get more interesting, one gets beheaded.
He mentions that Octavius broke down and cried, but I can't find a source on that. Anyone know what he is referencing?
Rip bruh rip