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[61] When Octavius saw him he expressed astonishment that he had not come sooner.
I did not save your brother, he exclaimed,
in order that you should be my enemy.
1
Cocceius replied,
How is it that you, who make friends out of enemies, call your friends enemies and take from them their armies and provinces?
It was not fitting, replied Octavius,
that after the death of Calenus such large resources should be left in the hands of such a stripling as Calenus’ son while Antony was still far distant. Lucius was excited to frenzy by them and Asinius and Ahenobarbus, who were near by, were about to use them against us. So, too, I took sudden possession of the legions of Plancus, in order that they might not join the Pompeians. His cavalry have actually gone to Sicily.
These matters have been told differently, said Cocceius;
but Antony did not credit the statements made to him until he was shut out of Brundusium as an enemy.
I gave no order on that subject, replied Octavius,
nor did I know beforehand that he was coming, nor did I anticipate that he would come here with enemies. The Brundusians themselves and the praefect, who had been left with them on account of the raids of Ahenobarbus, of their own motion excluded Antony, who was in league with the common enemy, Pompeius, and was bringing in Ahenobarbus, one of my father’s murderers, who has been condemned by vote of the Senate, by judgment of the court, and by the proscription, who besieged Brundusium after the battle of Philippi, and is still blockading the Adriatic coast, who has burned my ships and plundered Italy.
Civil Wars. Appian of Alexandria. Horace White (Translator). New York. 1899.
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