BOOK V
CHAPTER I
The Scattered Republican forces -- How they were reassembled -- Octavius
and Antony after the Battle -- Antony in Asia -- Makes a Public Speech
at Ephesus -- Levies Ten Years' Taxes -- Distress of the Inhabitants --
Antony makes a tour of The Eastern Provinces -- Meets Cleopatra in
Cilicia and becomes her Slave -- The Murder of Arsinoe -- Unsuccessful
Attack on Palmyra -- Antony goes to Egypt to join Cleopatra
AFTER the death of Cassius and Brutus, Octavius returned to Italy. Antony
proceeded to Asia, where he met Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, and succumbed to
her charms at first sight. This passion brought ruin upon them and upon all
Egypt besides. For this reason a part of this book will treat of Egypt -- a
small part, however, not worth mentioning in the title, since it is
incidental to the narrative of the civil wars, which constitutes much the
larger portion. Other similar civil wars took place after Cassius and
Brutus, but there was no one in command of all the forces as they had been.
The later wars were sporadic. But, finally, Sextus Pompeius, the younger son
of Pompey the Great, the last remaining leader of that faction, was slain,
as Brutus and Cassius had been, and Lepidus was deprived of his share of the
triumvirate, and the whole government of the Romans was centred in two only,
Antony and Octavius. These events came about in the following manner.
[
2]
Cassius, surnamed Parmesius,
1 had been left by Cassius and Brutus in Asia with a fleet
and an army to collect money. After the death of Cassius, not anticipating
the like fate of Brutus, he selected thirty ships belonging to the Rhodians,
which he intended to man, and burned the rest, except the sacred one, so
that they might not be able to revolt. Having done this he took his
departure with his own ships and the thirty. Clodius, who had been sent by
Brutus to Rhodes with thirteen ships, found the Rhodians in revolt (for
Brutus also was now dead). Clodius took away the garrison, consisting of
3000 soldiers, and joined Parmesius. They were joined by Turulius, who had a
numerous fleet and a large sum of money which he had previously extorted
from Rhodes.
2 To this fleet, which was now quite
powerful, flocked those who were rendering service in various parts of Asia,
and they manned the ships with soldiers as well as they could, and with
slaves, prisoners, and inhabitants of the islands where they touched, as
rowers. The son of Cicero joined them, and others of the nobility who had
escaped from Thasos. Thus in a short time there was a considerable gathering
and organization of officers, soldiers, and ships. Having received
additional forces under Lepidus,
3 who had brought Crete under subjection to Brutus, they made
sail to the Adriatic and united with Murcus and Domitius Ahenobarbus, who
had a large force under their command. Some of these sailed with Murcus to
Sicily to join Sextus Pompeius. The rest remained with Ahenobarbus and
formed a faction by themselves. Such was the first reassembling of what
remained of the war preparations of Cassius and Brutus.
[
3]
After the battle of Philippi Octavius and Antony offered a magnificent
sacrifice and awarded praise to their army. In order to provide the rewards
of victory Octavius went to Italy to divide the land among the soldiers and
to settle the colonies. He was chosen for this purpose on account of his
illness. Antony went to the nations beyond the Ægean to collect
the money that had been promised to the soldiers. They divided the provinces
among themselves as before and took those of Lepidus besides. It was
decided, at the instance of Octavius, to make Cisalpine Gaul free,
4 as the elder Cæsar had intended. Lepidus
had been accused of betraying the affairs of the triumvirate to Pompeius. It
was decided that if Octavius should find that this accusation was false
other provinces should be given to Lepidus. They dismissed from the military
service the soldiers who had served their full time, except 8000 who had
asked to remain. These they took back and divided between themselves and
formed them in prætorian cohorts. There remained to them,
including those who had come over from Brutus, eleven legions of infantry
and 14,000 horse. Of these Antony took, for his foreign expedition, six
legions and 10,000 horse. Octavius had five legions and 4000 horse, but of
these he gave two legions to Antony in exchange for others that Antony had
left in Italy under the command of Calenus. Then Octavius proceeded
toward the
Adriatic.
[
4]
When Antony arrived at Ephesus he offered a splendid sacrifice to the city's
goddess and pardoned those who, after the disaster to Brutus and Cassius,
had fled to the temple as suppliants, except Petronius, who had been privy
to the murder of Cæsar, and Quintus, who had betrayed Dolabella to
Cassius at Laodicea. Having assembled the Greeks and other peoples who
inhabited the Asiatic country around Pergamos, and who were present on a
peace embassy, and others who had been summoned thither, Antony addressed
them as follows: "Your King Attalus, O Greeks, left you to us in his will,
and straightway we proved better to you than Attalus had been, for we
released you from the taxes that you had been paying to him, until the
action of popular agitators among us made these taxes necessary. When they
became necessary we did not impose them upon you according to a fixed
valuation so that we could collect an absolutely certain sum, but we
required you to contribute a portion of your yearly harvest in order that we
might share with you the vicissitudes of the seasons. When the publicans,
who made these collections by the authority of the Senate, wronged you by
demanding more than was due, Gaius Cæsar remitted to you one-third
of what you had paid to them and put an end to their outrages; for he even
turned over to you the collection of the taxes from the cultivators of the
soil. And this was the kind of man that our honorable citizens called a
tyrant, and you contributed vast sums of money to the murderers of your
benefactor and against us, who were seeking to avenge him.
[
5]
"Now that a just fortune has decided the war, not as you wished, but as was
right, if we were to treat you as allies of our enemies we should be obliged
to punish you. But as we are willing to believe that you were constrained to
this course by necessity, we will release you from the heavier penalty. We
need money and land and cities as rewards for our soldiers. There are
twenty-eight legions of infantry which, with the auxiliaries, amount to
upwards of 170,000 men, besides cavalry and various other arms of the
service. The sum that we need for such a vast number of men you can easily
imagine. Octavius has gone to Italy to provide them with land and cities --
to expropriate Italy, if we must speak plainly. That we may not be under the
necessity of expelling you from your lands, cities, houses, temples, and
tombs, we must count upon getting money from you, not all that you have (we
could not think of that), but a part, a very small part, which, when you
learn it, I think you will cheerfully pay. What you contributed to our
enemies in two years (for you gave them the taxes of ten years in that time)
will be quite sufficient for us; but it must be paid in one year, because we
are pressed by necessity. As you are sensible of our leniency toward you, I
will merely add that the penalty imposed is by no means equal to your
deserts."
[
6]
Antony spoke thus of providing a donative for twenty-eight legions of
infantry, whereas I think that they had forty-three legions when they came
to their agreement at Mutina and made these promises, but the war had
probably reduced them to this number. The Greeks, while he was still
speaking, threw themselves upon the ground, declaring that they had been
subjected to force and violence by Brutus and Cassius, and that they were
deserving of pity, not of punishment; that they would willingly give to
their benefactors, but that they had been stripped by their enemies, to whom
they had delivered not only their money, but, in default of money, their
plate and their ornaments, and who had coined these things into money in
their presence. Finally, they prevailed by their entreaties that the amount
should be reduced to nine years' taxes, payable in two years. It was ordered
that the kings, princes, and free cities should make additional
contributions according to their means, respectively.
[
7]
While Antony was making the circuit of the provinces Lucius Cassius, the
brother of Gaius, and some others, who feared for their own safety, when
they heard of the pardon of Ephesus, presented themselves to him as
suppliants. He released them all except those who had been privy to the
murder of Cæsar. To these alone he was inexorable. He gave relief
to the cities that had suffered most severely. He released the Lycians from
taxes altogether, and urged the rebuilding of Xanthus. He gave to the
Rhodians Andros, Tenos, Naxos, and Myndus,
5 which were taken
from them not long afterward because they ruled them harshly. He made
Laodicea and Tarsus free cities and released them from taxes entirely, and
those inhabitants of Tarsus who had been sold into slavery he liberated by
an order. To the Athenians when they came to see him he gave Ægina
in exchange for Tenos, and also Icos, Cea, Sciathos, and Peparethos.
Proceeding onward to Phrygia, Mysia, Galatia, Cappadocia, Cilicia,
Cœle-Syria, Palestine, Ituræa, and the other provinces
of Syria, he imposed heavy contributions on all, and acted as arbiter
between kings and cities, -- in Cappadocia, for example, between Ariarthes
and Sisinna, awarding the kingdom to Sisinna on account of his mother,
Glaphyra, who appeared to him to be a beautiful woman. In Syria he delivered
the cities from tyrants one after another.
[
8]
Cleopatra came to meet him in Cilicia, and he blamed her for not sharing
their labors in avenging Cæsar. Instead of apologizing she
enumerated to him the things she had done, saying that she had sent the four
legions that had been left with her to Dolabella forthwith, and that she had
another fleet in readiness, but had been prevented from sending it by
adverse winds and by the misfortune of Dolabella, whose defeat came
suddenly; that she did not lend assistance to Cassius, who had threatened
her twice; that while the war was going on she had set sail for the Adriatic
in person with a fleet to assist them, in defiance of Cassius, and
disregarding Murcus, who was lying in wait for her; but that a tempest
shattered the fleet and prostrated herself with illness, for which reason
she was not able to put to sea again till they had already gained their
victory. Antony was amazed at her wit as well as her good looks, and became
her captive as though he were a young man, although he was forty years of
age. It is said that he was always very susceptible in this way, and that he
had been enamoured of her long ago when she was still a girl and he was
serving as master of horse under Gabinius at Alexandria.
[
9]
Straightway Antony's interest in public affairs began to dwindle. Whatever
Cleopatra ordered was done, regardless of laws, human or divine. While her
sister Arsinoe was a suppliant in the temple of Artemis Leucophryne at
Miletus,
6 Antony sent
assassins thither and put her to death. Serapion, Cleopatra's prefect in
Cyprus, who had assisted Cassius and was now a suppliant at Tyre, Antony
ordered the Tyrians to deliver to her. He commanded the Aradians to deliver
up another suppliant who, when Ptolemy, the brother of Cleopatra,
disappeared at the battle with Cæsar on the Nile, said that he was
Ptolemy, and whom the Aradians now held. He ordered the priest of Artemis at
Ephesus, whom they called Megabyzus,
7 and who had once received
Arsinoe as queen, to be brought before him, but in response to the
supplications of the Ephesians, addressed to Cleopatra herself, released
him. So swiftly was Antony transformed, and this passion was the beginning
and the end of evils that befell him. When Cleopatra returned home Antony
sent a cavalry force to Palmyra, situated not far from the Euphrates, to
plunder it, bringing the trifling accusations against its inhabitants, that,
being on the frontier between the Romans and the Parthians, they had avoided
taking sides between them; for, being merchants, they bring the products of
India and Arabia and dispose of them in the Roman territory. In fact,
Antony's intention was to enrich his horsemen, but the Palmyreans were
forewarned and they transported their property across the river, and,
stationing themselves on the bank, prepared to shoot anybody who should
attack them, for they were expert bowmen. The cavalry found nothing in the
city. They turned around and came back, having met no foe, and empty-handed.
[
10]
It seems that this course on Antony's part caused the outbreak of the
Parthian war not long afterward, as many of the rulers expelled from Syria
had taken refuge with the Parthians. Syria, until the reign of Antiochus
Pius and his son, Antiochus, had been ruled by the descendants of Seleucus
Nicator, as I have related in my Syrian history. Pompey added it to the
Roman sway, and Scaurus was appointed prætor over it. After
Scaurus the Senate sent others, including Gabinius, who made war against the
Alexandrians, and after Gabinius, Crassus, who lost his life in the Parthian
war, and after Crassus, Bibulus. At the time of Cæsar's death and
the intestine strife which followed, tyrants got possession of the cities
one by one, and they were assisted by the Parthians, who made an irruption
into Syria after the disaster to Crassus and coöperated with the
tyrants. Antony drove out the latter, who took refuge in Parthia. He then
imposed very heavy tribute on the masses and committed the outrage already
mentioned against the Palmyreans, and did not wait for the disturbed country
to become quiet, but distributed his army in winter quarters in the
provinces, and himself went to Egypt to join Cleopatra.
[
11]
She gave him a magnificent reception, and he spent the winter there without
the insignia of his office and with the habit and mode of life of a private
person, either because he was in a foreign jurisdiction, in a city under
royal sway, or because he regarded his wintering as a festal occasion. He
laid aside the cares and duties of a general, and wore the square-cut
garment of the Greeks instead of the costume of his own country, and the
white Attic shoe of the Athenian and Alexandrian priests, which they call
the phœcasium. He went out only to the temples,
the schools, and the discussions of the learned, and spent his time with
Greeks, out of deference to Cleopatra, to whom his sojourn in Alexandria was
wholly devoted. Such was the state of affairs with Antony.
CHAPTER II
Octavius returns to Rome -- Consternation among the Italians --
Confiscation and Division of the Land -- Beginning of Trouble with
Lucius Antonius -- Outrages committed by the Soldiers -- Octavius
powerless to prevent them -- The Killing of Nonius -- Insubordination
and Desertion, and the Causes thereof
[
12]
As Octavius was journeying to Rome he became dangerously ill at Brundusium,
and a rumor gained currency that he was dead. On his recovery he returned to
the city and showed to Antony's friends the letters Antony had written. The
Antonians directed Calenus to give Octavius the two legions, and wrote to
Sextius in Africa to turn that province over to him. This was the course of
the Antonians while, as it appeared that Lepidus had not been guilty of any
serious wrong, Octavius transferred Africa to him in exchange for his former
provinces. He also sold the remainder of the property confiscated under the
conscriptions. The task of assigning the soldiers to their colonies and
dividing the land was one of exceeding difficulty. The soldiers demanded the
cities which had been selected for them before the war as prizes for their
valor. The cities demanded that the whole of Italy should share the burden,
or that the cities should cast lots with the other cities, and that those
who gave the land should be paid the value of it; but there was no money.
They came to Rome in crowds, young and old, women and children, to the forum
and the temples, uttering lamentations, saying that they had done no wrong
for which they, Italians, should be driven from their fields and their
hearthstones, like people conquered in war. The Romans mourned and wept with
them, especially when they reflected that the war had been waged, and the
rewards of victory given, not in behalf of the commonwealth, but against
themselves and for a change of the form of government; that the colonies
were established so that democracy should never again lift its head, --
colonies composed of hirelings settled there by the rulers to be in
readiness for whatever purpose they might be wanted.
[
13]
Octavius explained to the cities the necessity of the case, but he knew that
it would not satisfy them; and it did not. The soldiers encroached upon
their neighbors in an insolent manner, seizing more than had been given to
them and choosing the best lands; nor did they cease when Octavius rebuked
them and made them numerous other presents. They were contemptuous in the
knowledge that their rulers needed them to confirm their power, for the five
years' term of the triumvirate was passing away, and army and rulers needed
the services of each other for mutual security. The chiefs depended on the
soldiers for the continuance of their government, while, for the control of
what they had received, the soldiers depended on the permanence of the
government of those who had given it. Believing that they could not keep a
firm hold unless the givers had a strong government,
8 they fought for them with good-will,
necessarily. Octavius made many other gifts to the indigent soldiers,
borrowing from the temples for that purpose, for which reason the affections
of the army were turned toward him. The greater thanks were bestowed upon
him both as the giver of the land, the cities, the money, and the houses,
and as the object of denunciation on the part of the despoiled, and as one
who bore this contumely for the army's sake.
[
14]
Observing this, Lucius Antonius, the brother of Antony, who was then consul,
and Fulvia, the wife of Antony, and Manius, his procurator during his
absence, resorted to artifices to delay the settlement of the colonies till
Antony should return home, in order that it might not seem to be wholly the
work of Octavius, and that he might not reap the thanks alone, and Antony be
bereft of the favor of the soldiers. As this could not be done, on account
of the haste of the soldiers, they asked that Octavius should take the
colony leaders of Antony's legions from Antony's own friends, although the
agreement with Antony yielded the selection to Octavius exclusively. They
made it a matter of complaint that Antony was not present.
9 They brought
Fulvia and Antony's children before the soldiers, and, in envious terms,
besought them not to forget Antony or allow him to be deprived of the glory
or the gratitude due to his service to them. The fame of Antony was then at
its maximum, not only among the soldiers, but among all others. The victory
of Philippi was considered wholly due to him, on account of Octavius'
illness. Although Octavius was not ignorant that it was a violation of the
agreement, he yielded as a matter of favor to Antony, and appointed friends
of the latter as colony leaders for Antony's legions. These leaders, in
order that they might appear more favorable to the soldiers than Octavius
was, allowed them to commit still greater outrages. So there was another
multitude from other communities, neighbors of the dispossessed ones,
suffering many injuries at the hands of the soldiers, and crying out against
Octavius, saying that the colonization was worse than the proscription,
since the latter was directed against foes, while the former was against
inoffensive persons.
[
15]
Octavius knew that these citizens were suffering injustice, but he was
without means to prevent it. There was no money to pay the value of the land
to the cultivators,