In the year 710 from the founding of the City, after Julius Caesar had been killed, Octavian — who by the will of Julius Caesar, his uncle, had taken both his inheritance and his name, and who afterwards, when he had gained supreme power, was called Augustus — as soon as he came to Rome, still quite a young man, devoted his talents to civil wars.1
1 Anno ab urbe condita DCCX interfecto Iulio Caesare Octauianus, qui testamento Iuli Caesaris auunculi et hereditatem et nomen adsumpserat idemque, qui postea rerum potitus Augustus est dictus, simul ut Romam adulescens admodum uenit, indolem suam bellis ciuilibus uouit.
1Julius Caesar was in fact Octavian’s great-uncle, the brother of his grandmother Julia; Orosius calls him auunculus, “uncle”.
For, to set out this heaping-up of evils briefly, he waged five civil wars: those of Mutina, Philippi, Perusia, Sicily and Actium. Of these, two — that is, the first and the last — he fought out against Mark Antony, the second against Brutus and Cassius, the third against Lucius Antonius, and the fourth against Sextus Pompey, the son of Pompey.
2 nam, ut breuiter coaceruationem malorum explicem, bella ciuilia quinque gessit: Mutinense Philippense Perusinum Siculum Actiacum. e quibus duo, hoc est primum ac nouissimum, aduersus M. Antonium, secundum aduersus Brutum et Cassium, tertium aduersus L. Antonium, quartum aduersus Sex. Pompeium, Cn. Pompei filium, confecit.
Antony, declared a public enemy by the senate, had shut Decimus Brutus in by siege at Mutina. The consuls Hirtius and Pansa, and with them Caesar, were sent to free Brutus and to defeat Antony.
3 Antonius a senatu hostis pronuntiatus D. Brutum apud Mutinam obsidione concluserat. consules Hirtius et Pansa et cum his Caesar ad liberandum Brutum expugnandumque Antonium missi.
Pansa, arriving first, was caught in an ambush, and amid the slaughter of his men he too was gravely wounded by a javelin, and died of that same wound some days later. Hirtius, bringing aid to his colleague, destroyed great forces of Antony with vast slaughter. Caesar, up to that point, kept guard over the camp.
4 Pansa primo ueniens exceptus insidiis, inter suorum clades ipse quoque pilo grauiter uulneratus ab eodem uulnere interpositis diebus est mortuus. Hirtius auxilium collegae ferens magnas Antonii copias uasta strage deleuit. Caesar eatenus castra custodiit.
In a second battle against Antony great slaughter was done on both sides. For it was then and there that the consul Hirtius was killed; Antony was defeated and fled; and Caesar won the victory. To him Decimus Brutus, confessing his part in the conspiracy to kill Julius Caesar, poured out prayers of repentance.
5 secunda aduersus Antonium pugna magnae utrimque strages actae sunt. namque tunc ibi Hirtius consul occisus est, uictus fugit Antonius, Caesar uictoria potitus est, cui D. Brutus de coniuratione occisi Iuli Caesaris confessus preces paenitentiae fudit.
Dolabella killed Trebonius, one of the murderers of Caesar, at Smyrna. The senate declared Dolabella a public enemy. The armies of both the slain consuls obeyed Caesar.
6 Dolabella Trebonium, unum ex interfectoribus Caesaris, Zmyrnae interfecit. Dolabellam senatus hostem pronuntiauit. consulum occisorum uterque exercitus Caesari paruit.
Afterwards Decimus Brutus was captured and killed in Gaul by the Sequani. Basilus, likewise one of the assassins, was put to death by a band of his own slaves.
7 postea D. Brutus in Gallia a Sequanis captus et occisus est. Basilus autem, aeque unus de percussoribus, manu seruorum suorum necatus est.
Through Lepidus’s busy efforts Caesar received Antony back into favour, and as a pledge of the reconciliation he took Antony’s daughter in marriage.2
8 Lepido satisagente Caesar Antonium recepit in gratiam atque ob fidem reconciliatae gratiae filiam eius matrimonio sortitus est.
2Octavian married Clodia, daughter of Fulvia by her first husband Clodius, and so Antony’s stepdaughter, not his daughter.
Then, when they had approached the City and a rumour of a coming proscription had arisen, Gaius Thoranius, a man of praetorian rank, fearing nothing of the sort, was killed in his own house by an onrush of soldiers, and a good many others were butchered.
9 inde cum ad urbem accessissent ac rumor de futura proscriptione ortus esset, C. Thoranius uir praetorius nihil tale metuens incursu militum domi suae interfectus est aliique conplures trucidati sunt.
And so, lest an unbounded slaughter should be carried on more widely and more unbridledly, the names of 132 senators were posted on a tablet: first by the command and in the name of Lepidus, then of Antony, and third of Caesar.
10 itaque, ne latius atque effrenatius incircumscripta caedes ageretur, centum triginta et duum senatorum nomina in tabula proposita sunt, primum Lepidi praecepto et nomine, deinde Antonii, tertio Caesaris.
There Antony had proscribed Tullius Cicero, his enemy; there Lucius Caesar, his uncle — and, what was added to heighten the crime, while his mother was still living; there Lepidus had thrown Lucius Paulus, his brother, into the same herd of the proscribed.
11 ibi Antonius Tullium Ciceronem inimicum suum, ibi L. Caesarem auunculum suum et - quod exaggerando sceleri accessit - uiua matre proscripserat; ibi Lepidus L. Paulum fratrem suum in eundem proscriptorum gregem coniecerat.
Afterwards thirty Roman knights were added to the number of the proscribed. Many and various slaughters were carried on for a long time; the houses of the proscribed were plundered of everything and torn down.
12 adiecti sunt postea ad numerum proscriptorum triginta equites Romani. multae diu et uariae caedes actae, domus proscriptorum direptis omnibus dirutae sunt.
Dolabella, for his part, waged many wars in Syria with Cassius, and, defeated by him, killed himself. Brutus and Cassius, having raised great armies, met at Athens and laid waste the whole of Greece. Cassius attacked the Rhodians by land and sea and compelled them to surrender, leaving them nothing but their lives.
13 at Dolabella in Syria multa cum Cassio bella gessit, a quo uictus ipse se interfecit. Brutus et Cassius magnis exercitibus conparatis apud Athenas conuenerunt totamque Graeciam depopulati sunt. Rhodios Cassius terra marique oppugnatos ad deditionem coegit, quibus praeter uitam nihil reliquit.
So Caesar and Antony pursued them into Macedonia with great preparations for war and drove them to their deaths; although that battle was then quite manifestly decided not by the valour of Antony’s side but by the good fortune of Caesar.
14 igitur Caesar et Antonius eosdem in Macedoniam magnis bellorum apparatibus persecuti, ad mortem conpulerunt; quamuis manifestissime illa tunc pugna non uirtute partis Antoni, sed Caesaris felicitate confecta sit.
For Caesar was then ill; and though he had determined to keep to his camp in order to rest, at the urging and entreaties of his physician — who declared that he had been warned in a dream to lead Caesar out of the camp that day for the sake of his very life — he went out with difficulty onto the field among his troops, and soon afterwards his camp was taken by the enemy. But Caesar’s soldiers in turn took the camp of Cassius.
15 Caesar enim tunc aeger, cum se in castris capiendae quietis causa tenere statuisset, hortatu et precibus medici sui, qui per somnium admonitum sese fatebatur, ut ea die castris Caesarem salutis ipsius causa educeret, in campum aegre inter copias egressus est ac mox castra eius ab hostibus capta sunt. sed rursus Caesariani milites Cassi castra ceperunt.
Wherefore Brutus and Cassius, driven to despair, inflicted an untimely death on themselves before the end of the war. For they called on men to strike them: Cassius offered his head, Brutus his side.
16 quare ad desperationem adacti Brutus et Cassius immaturam sibi mortem ante belli terminum consciuerunt. nam inuitatis percussoribus Cassius caput, Brutus latus praebuit.
At Rome, meanwhile, Fulvia, the wife of Antony and mother-in-law of Caesar, woman though she was, was wielding a lordly power — whether, in this changeover from consular to royal eminence, she is to be counted the last of a failing power or the first of a beginning one is uncertain — insolent, certainly, even towards those through whom she was enabled to be insolent.
17 at Romae Fuluia, uxor Antoni, socrus Caesaris, dominatum ut mulier agitabat, incertum in hac mutatione consularis regiique fastigii utrum deficientis potentiae ultima an incipientis prima numeranda, certe etiam in eos insolens, per quos ut insolesceret agebatur.
For she also assailed Caesar on his return at Brundisium with insults, factions and plots. Repulsed by him, she withdrew to Antony in Greece.
18 nam et Caesarem reuersum apud Brundisium contumeliis factionibus insidiisque petiit. a quo propulsata ad Antonium concessit in Graeciam.
Sextus Pompey, after he learned that he had been entered among the number of the proscribed, turned to brigandage and laid waste the whole coast of Italy with slaughter and plunder. Having seized Sicily beforehand and blocked the supplies, he afflicted Rome with famine.
19 Sex. Pompeius postquam se in proscriptorum numerum relatum conperit, conuersus in latrocinia omnem oram Italiae caedibus rapinisque uastauit. Sicilia praerepta commeatibusque inpeditis Romam fame adfecit.
Soon the triumvirs — not to call them tyrants — that is, Lepidus, Caesar and Antony, made peace with him. But at once, when Sextus, contrary to the agreement, began enrolling runaway slaves, he was held to be an enemy.
20 mox cum eo pacem triumuiri, ut non dicam tyranni, id est Lepidus Caesar Antoniusque fecerunt. sed continuo cum contra pactum Pompeius fugitiuos allegeret, ut hostis habitus est.
Mena, Pompey’s freedman, deserted to Caesar with a fleet of sixty ships, and by Caesar’s order took command of that same fleet himself. He too, straightway, together with Statilius Taurus, waged a naval war against Menecrates, the Pompeian admiral.
21 Mena libertus Pompei cum sexaginta nauium classe ad Caesarem defecit eidemque classi ipse iussu Caesaris praefuit. idemque continuo cum Statilio Tauro aduersus Menecraten Pompeianum ducem nauale bellum gessit.
Then Caesar himself fought out a most bloody naval war against these same Pompeians; but straightway he lost almost the whole of his victorious fleet by shipwreck off Scylaceum.
22 deinde ipse Caesar aduersus eosdem Pompeianos cruentissimum bellum nauale confecit; sed continuo uictricem classem paene uniuersam apud Scylaceum naufragio amisit.
Ventidius routed the Persians and Parthians, who were bursting into Syria, in three very great battles, and killed their king Pacorus in battle — on the very day, indeed, on which Crassus had been killed by the Parthians. Antony, having stormed scarcely a single fort, made peace with Antiochus, so that he himself might appear to have brought so great an affair to its conclusion.
23 Ventidius Persas et Parthos in Syriam inrumpentes tribus bellis maximis fudit regemque eorum Pacorum in acie interfecit, ea scilicet die, qua Crassus a Parthis fuerat occisus. Antonius, uix uno castello expugnato, pacem cum Antiocho fecit, ut ipse tantam rem consummasse uideretur.
He put Ventidius in charge of Syria and ordered him to make war on Antigonus, who had then, as it happened, subdued the Jews, captured Jerusalem, despoiled the temple and given the kingdom to Herod; Ventidius at once defeated him and received him in surrender.3
24 Ventidium Syriae praefecit iussitque ut Antigono bellum inferret, qui Iudaeos tum forte debellauerat captisque Hierosolymis templum spoliauerat regnumque Herodi dederat: quem continuo uictum in deditionem recepit.
3Antigonus, the last Hasmonean king, was set up in Jerusalem by the Parthians in 40 BC. It was Gaius Sosius, not Ventidius, who with Herod took Jerusalem in 37 BC; Herod, already named king by the Romans, then received the kingdom.
Mena the freedman went back to Sextus Pompey with six ships, and, received by him with clemency, set fire to Caesar’s fleet, although Caesar had lately lost another fleet by a second shipwreck. The same Mena afterwards, surrounded by Agrippa in a naval battle, went over to Caesar with six triremes. But Caesar, granting this man, now a deserter for the third time, only his life, left him without employment.
25 Mena libertus cum sex nauibus ad Pompeium rediit, a quo clementer receptus Caesaris classem incendit, quamuis nuper Caesar alteram secundo naufragio perdidisset. idemque Mena postea ab Agrippa nauali proelio circumuentus cum sex triremibus ad Caesarem transiit. sed hunc Caesar tertio transfugam, indulta tantum uita, segnem reliquit.
Then Agrippa fought a naval battle between Mylae and Lipara against Demochares and Sextus Pompey, and won, sinking or capturing thirty ships there and shattering the rest. Sextus fled to Messana.
26 deinde Agrippa inter Mylas et Liparas aduersus Democham et Pompeium nauale proelium gessit ac uicit ibique tunc naues triginta aut demersit aut cepit reliquis laceratis. Pompeius Messanam confugit.
Caesar meanwhile had crossed over to Tauromenium; Sextus struck him with a sudden attack, and so, with many of his ships sunk and a great multitude of his soldiers lost, Caesar fled to Italy; and without any delay he returned to Sicily,
27 Caesar interea Tauromenium traiecerat: quem repentino impetu Pompeius adflixit: unde multis demersis nauibus suis ac magna multitudine suorum militum perdita, in Italiam Caesar aufugit; nec interueniente mora in Siciliam rediit;
and there he met Lepidus arriving from Africa, claiming the chief share of power for himself with terror, threats and arrogance.
28 ibique Lepidum ex Africa aduentantem obuium habuit, summas sibi partes terrore minis ac superbia uindicantem.
A few days later Agrippa, by Caesar’s command — Caesar watching from the shore with his army drawn up — engaged Sextus Pompey in a most savage naval battle, and won. For he sank or captured 163 ships. Sextus, with seventeen ships, barely slipped away and escaped.
29 post dies paucos Agrippa iussu Caesaris a litore cum acie instructa prospectantis atrocissimo nauali proelio aduersus Pompeium conflixit et uicit. nam centum sexaginta et tres naues aut demersit aut cepit. Pompeius cum decem et septem nauibus uix elapsus euasit.
Lepidus, swelling with the great insolence that his twenty legions gave him, when he had plundered Messana, which he had handed over to his soldiers, spurned Caesar himself once and again when he came to him, and ordered him rather to be assailed with missiles.
30 Lepidus magna uiginti legionum insolentia tumens cum Messanam militibus permissam diripuisset, ipsum Caesarem ad se uenientem semel atque iterum spreuit ac potius telis adpeti iussit.
Caesar avoided these by warding them off with his cloak gathered over his left arm; soon, spurring his horse, he went back to his men, and, coming against Lepidus with his army drawn up, he compelled very many of Lepidus’s legions to cross over to his side, with only a few killed.
31 quae ille collecta in laeuum bracchium lacerna repellendo uitauit; mox inmisso equo ad suos reuersus, instructo exercitu aduersus Lepidum ueniens; plurimas legiones Lepidi paucis interfectis transire in suam partem conpulit.
Lepidus, at last understanding where his vanity was leading, laid aside his general’s cloak, put on mourning, and, becoming a suppliant to Caesar, obtained his life and his property, though he was banished into perpetual exile. Taurus, Caesar’s prefect, received into allegiance almost the whole of Sicily, which had been tested by the sword and thoroughly terrified.
32 Lepidus tandem intellegens, quo uanitas sua tenderet, deposito paludamento assumptaque ueste pulla, supplex Caesari factus uitam et bona impetrauit, perpetuo quidem amendatus exilio. Taurus, Caesaris praefectus, totam paene Siciliam ferro pertemptatam conterritamque in fidem recepit.
Forty-four legions were then under the command of Caesar alone; the soldiers, grown fiercer through their numbers, stirred up certain tumults to obtain land; but Caesar, great of spirit, discharged twenty thousand soldiers, restored thirty thousand slaves to their masters, and crucified six thousand whose masters were not to be found.
33 quadraginta et quattuor legiones sub unius tunc imperio Caesaris erant; milites, multitudine ferociores, quosdam pro accipiendis agris tumultus excitauerunt; sed Caesar, animo ingens, uiginti milia militum exauctorauit, triginta milia seruorum dominis restituit, sex milia, quorum domini non exstabant, in crucem egit.
When he had entered the City in an ovation, it was decreed by the senate that he should hold the tribunician power in perpetuity. In these days, across the Tiber, a spring of oil welled up from the earth out of a public lodging-house, and flowed for a whole day in a most abundant stream.
34 ouans urbem ingressus ut in perpetuum tribuniciae potestatis esset, a senatu decretum est. his diebus trans Tiberim e taberna meritoria fons olei terra exundauit ac per totum diem largissimo riuo fluxit.