[
5]
And now civil discord broke out again worse than
ever and
increased enormously. Massacres, banishments, and proscriptions of both
senators and the so-called knights took place straightway, including great
numbers of both classes, the chief of factions surrendering their enemies to
each other, and for this purpose not sparing even their friends and
brothers; so much does animosity toward rivals overpower the love of
kindred. So in the course of events the Roman empire was partitioned, as
though it had been their private property, by these three men: Antony,
Lepidus, and the one who was first called Octavius, but afterward
Cæsar from his relationship to the other Cæsar and
adoption in his will. Shortly after this division they fell to quarrelling
among themselves, as was natural, and Octavius,
who was the superior in
understanding and skill, first
deprived Lepidus of
Africa, which had fallen to his lot, and
afterward,
as the result of the battle of
Actium, took from
Antony all the
provinces lying between
Syria and
the Adriatic gulf. Thereupon, while all the world was filled with
astonishment at these wonderful displays of power, he sailed to
Egypt and took that country, which was the
oldest and at that time the strongest possession of the successors of
Alexander, and the only one wanting to complete the Roman empire as it now
stands. In consequence of these
exploits he was at once elevated to the rank of a deity
while
still living, and was the first to be thus
distinguished by the Romans, and was called by them Augustus. He assumed to
himself an authority like Cæsar's over the country and the subject
nations, and even greater than Cæsar's, not needing any form of
election, or authorization, or even the pretence of it. His government being
strengthened by time and mastery, and himself successful in all things and
revered by all, he left a lineage and succession that held the supreme power
in like manner after him.
