Augustus

The weather had been terrible since the Ides of March. For much of 44, there was continuous gloom and a persistent rusty dry fog, and the sun was often invisible. This was probably the consequence of a major eruption of Mount Etna in Sicily; today’s scientists have identified acid snow from the period in the ice cores of Greenland. Years later, the poet Virgil recalled this time as one of “wars that grow in the dark like cancer.”

On the day in early May when Octavian entered Rome, stars could be seen in the daytime around a dim sun, looking like wreaths made from ears of wheat and rings of changing color. This was widely seen as a favorable omen, a prophecy of royalty.

Octavian’s most urgent task was to make his position official. The adoption had to be legally authorized by a lex curiata and he wanted to collect his legacy. He went straight to Antony to ask for the money. He found him in his garden house (hortus) on the edge of the Campus Martius.

After going to ground for some hours on the Ides of March, Antony in his capacity as Caesar’s fellow consul had persuaded Calpurnia to hand over to him all Caesar’s papers. He had also won control of Caesar’s financial resources. It was very likely that he had improperly salted away substantial sums of cash; the word was that, having been forty million sesterces in debt, he had suddenly become solvent.

From Antony’s point of view, the arrival of Caesar’s heir was an annoying distraction. He was an inexperienced teenager, “a boy,” Antony gibed, “who owes everything to his name.” Octavian was kept waiting in an anteroom and was admitted only after a long delay. Pleasantries were exchanged, and then he asked for Caesar’s money so that he could pay his legacies to the people.

Octavian’s request was awkward, and Antony angrily refused it. He said that he had found the state treasury empty and needed funds for the conduct of public business. He also made the technical point that the adoption was not yet official (later, he did his best to delay confirmation).

Octavian was furious, but there was little he could do to change the consul’s mind. However, even without access to Caesar’s estate, Octavian had large sums of money at his disposal. He is reported to have expropriated Caesar’s war chest for the Parthian expedition; while at Brundisium he may also have received, or seized, tax receipts from Asia on their way to the Roman treasury. Octavian decided to trump the consul. He announced that he would pay his adoptive father’s legacies out of his own pocket, even if Antony held back the moneys due. He also put up for sale all Caesar’s properties and estates.

A highly effective campaign of words was launched to discredit the consul further in the public mind. The aim was clever and twofold—first, to smear Antony before the people and the legions and, second, to break Antony’s concordat with the Senate by forcing him into a popularity contest for Caesarian support.

In accordance with a senatorial decree, Octavian planned to display at some games held in mid-May Caesar’s golden chair and a diadem (a white cloth strip worn around the head to denote royalty), which he had been offered and refused a few weeks before his death. The consul lost his temper and forbade it.

Octavian wandered around the city center, with a crowd of followers like a bodyguard, making speeches about the disgraceful treatment he was enduring. “Heap as many insults on me as you like, Antony, but stop plundering Caesar’s property until the citizens have received their legacy. Then you can take all the rest.” Antony was furious and responded with threats.

At this point the consul’s officers intervened and forced a reconciliation. They loved Caesar’s memory and, equally loyal to his trusted friend and his adopted son, refused to fight for either against the other.

Antony was compelled to reassess his situation; although he still saw the “boy” as little more than a nuisance, Octavian had destabilized the situation. In order to stay on terms with his soldiers, Antony abandoned his statesmanlike compromise with the Senate, with which his relations had deteriorated sadly. Cicero, who thought him an unreliable drunkard and a political gambler (aleator, “dice thrower”), suspected his good faith and was stirring up opinion against him among republicans. Antony needed to secure his personal safety and to continue to dominate the political scene in Rome.