[1] 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 Aegean 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 Caesar 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 praetorian 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 ⁵ toward the Adriatic. ⁶

[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 Caesar, 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 Caesar 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 Caesar. 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, ⁷ 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 Aegina in exchange for Tenos, and also Icos, Cea, Sciathos, and Peparethos. Proceeding onward to Phrygia, Mysia, Galatia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Cœle-Syria, Palestine, Ituraea, 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 Caesar. 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, ⁸ 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 Caesar 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, ⁹ 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 praetor 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 Caesar’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 phaecasium. 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.