The Augustan Empire 43 BC

The fall of Sextus involved both in temporary embarrassments. Octavian found himself with forty-five legions, but confronted by a mutiny. Uncomfortably enough, his troops were beginning to believe his own propaganda. He had concluded the civil wars and brought peace on land and sea, so he said:¹⁷⁹ well, in that case there was no need for further service, and they demanded immediate demobilization. That would hardly do. Octavian knew he would need them again soon. But at least the longest-serving could be released, those who had fought for Octavian since Mutina and Philippi, some 20,000 men.¹⁸⁰ There were delays, but land was found for most of them, largely in Italy but partly in Gaul.¹⁸¹ The others were promised 500 denarii, and, rather surprisingly, soon received it;¹⁸² they were also induced to expect lucrative spoils in Illyricum — not very plausible for any who knew the land, but probably few did, and the ploy passed. Octavian could now return to Rome and acclaim. He celebrated an ovatio, and the other honours included a grant of tribunicial sacrosanctity,¹⁸³ interestingly presaging a conspicuous feature of his later constitutional facade. And there was more talk of restoring the Republic when Antony returned - how could he refuse, now Octavian had ended the civil wars? Peace and security would shortly be restored at home as well: Calvisius Sabinus was appointed to put down Italian brigandage, and a police force of some sort was established in Rome itself.¹⁸⁴ There was even a remission of some taxes, and the regular magistrates were ostentatiously allowed more freedom.¹⁸⁵ This was not the first time that the triumvirs had portrayed themselves as champions of Roman tradition, even a sort of constitutional normal­ity.¹⁸⁶ But Octavian was beginning to steal the mask for his own.

In Antony's case, the embarrassment was Sextus himself. In the winter of 36/5 he arrived at Mytilene, hoping to ally himself with Antony; when

App. BCiv. v.i 28.5 50, 130.540-2, 132.546-8; cf. Dio xlix.15.2.

App. BCiv. v. 129.534 ('since Mutina or Philippi'); Dio xlix. 14.1 specifies those who had served'since Mutina or for ten years'; cf. Reinhold 1988(b i )o)njloc.\ Brunt 1971 (a 9) 3 31; Keppie 1983 (e 65) 69-73. Some of them soon re-enlisted: Dio xlix.54.3.

Keppie 1983 (e 65) 70-3; cf. Dio xlix.34.4.

Dio xlix. 14.2, with Reinhold 1988 (в 150) alloc.-, App. BCiv. v. 129.536.

See Endnote, p. 68.

^ш App. BCiv. v.132.547; cf. Suet. Aug. 32; Dio XLix.15.1j Palmer 1978 (c 184) 320-1.

App. BCiv. v.150.540, 132.548; Dio XLIX.15.3; cf. Nicolet 1976(0104)95.

See above, pp. 19-21, 27.

he heard of the Parthian disaster, he began to intrigue against him instead. Either way, he was a problem. Not that he was very strong: he was raising troops again, but even at the end he had little more than three legions and a handful of ships.[95] But he would be an awkward ally: with Italy being encouraged to celebrate his downfall, it might now seem to be Antony rather than Octavian who was refusing to let the civil wars die. And it would be awkward to kill him too. There were enough people in Rome who still recalled wistfully the hopes they had placed in him:[96]Octavian himself, outrageously, was later to make capital of this, and attack Antony for his faithless treatment of him.[97] Antony appointed M. Titius to take charge of the problem. Titius' father had been among the proscribed who fled to Sextus, and Titius himself had been spared by Sextus when captured by Menodorus in 40.[98] Antony probably selected Titius precisely because of these earlier favours, to smooth any dealings which proved necessary. But in the event no dealing proved possible, for Sextus' faithlessness became too apparent. By the spring of 3 5 the pursuit was tying up the governors of both Asia and Bithynia, C. Furnius and Domitius Ahenobarbus, as well as a sizeable fleet; King Amyntas too was involved. That was too much. When Sextus was finally captured by Amyntas in Phrygia, he was brought to Titius in Miletus and executed there. Antony may or may not have authorized his death. If he did, he covered his tracks: some said that Plancus, not he, had given the order; other stories were told of two letters, one ordering the execution and one countermanding it, which of course arrived in the wrong sequence.[99]