Searching for “=+Caesar -Cicero”

Moreover, he deprived some of money and offices, which in turn he gave to others, pretending that in doing so he was carrying out Caesar’s directions. Next he seized large sums of money there in Rome, and collected large sums also from private persons, communities, and kings, selling to some land, to others freedom, to others citizenship, to others exemption from taxes.

Antony, however, paid no attention to them, and, in a word, despised Octavius, who, as a stripling and inexperienced in business, had declined the inheritance because it was troublesome and hard to manage; and thus he himself, claiming to be the heir not only of the property but also of the power of Caesar, managed everything. One of his acts was to restore some exiles.

For Caesar, being childless and basing great hopes upon him, loved and cherished him, intending to leave him as successor to his name, authority, and sovereignty. He was influenced largely by Attia’s emphatic declaration that the youth had been engendered by Apollo; for while sleeping once in his temple, she said, she thought she had intercourse with a serpent, and it was this that caused her at the end of the allotted time to bear a son.

Caesar, accordingly, founded great hopes upon him as a result of all this, enrolled him among the patricians, and trained him for the rule, carefully educating him in all the arts that should be possessed by one who was destined to direct well and worthily so great a power.

He, too, acted in a precarious and hazardous fashion; for he was only just past boyhood, being eighteen years of age, and saw that his succession to the inheritance and the family was sure to provoke jealousy and censure; yet he set out in pursuit of objects such as had led to Caesar’s murder, which had not been avenged, and he feared neither the assassins nor Lepidus and Antony.

In this way he who was formerly called Octavius, but already by this time Caesar, and subsequently Augustus, took a hand in public affairs; and he managed and dealt with them more vigorously than any man in his prime, more prudently than any graybeard.

Indeed, so far from demanding of Antony any of the money that he had previously plundered, he actually paid court to him, although he was insulted and wronged by him. For Antony did him many injuries both in word and deed, particularly when the lex curiata was proposed by which the transfer of Octavius into Caesar’s family was to take place;

Antony himself pretended to be doing his best to have it passed, but through some tribunes he kept securing its postponement, in order that the young man, not being as yet Caesar’s son according to law, might not meddle with the property and might be weaker in all other ways.

Caesar was vexed at this, but as he was unable to speak his mind freely, he bore it until he had won over the multitude, by whom he understood his father had been raised to honour.

For he knew that they were angry at Caesar’s death and hoped they would be devoted to him as his son, and he perceived that they hated Antony on account of his conduct as master of the horse and also for his failure to punish the assassins.

Hence he undertook to become tribune as a starting point for popular leadership and to secure the power that would result from it; and he accordingly became a candidate for the place of Cinna, which was vacant. Though hindered by Antony’s followers, he did not desist, and after using persuasion upon Tiberius Cannutius, a tribune, he was by him brought before the populace; and taking as his pretext the gift bequeathed the people by Caesar, he addressed them in appropriate words, promising that he would discharge this debt at once and giving them cause to hope for much besides.

After this came the festival appointed in honour of the completion of the temple of Venus, which some, while Caesar was still alive, had promised to celebrate, but were now holding in slight regard, even as they did the games in the Circus in honour of the Parilia; so, to win the favour of the populace, he provided for it at his private expense, on the ground that it concerned him because of his family.

At this time out of fear of Antony he did not bring into the theatre either Caesar’s gilded chair or his crown set with precious stones, as had been permitted by decree.

When, however, a certain star during all those days appeared in the north toward evening, which some called a comet, claiming that it foretold the usual occurrences, while the majority, instead of believing this, ascribed it to Caesar, interpreting it to mean that he had become immortal and had been received into the number of the stars, Octavius then took courage and set up in the temple of Venus a bronze statue of him with a star above his head.

So Antony, seeing that Caesar was gaining ground, attempted to attract the populace by various baits, to see if he could detach them from his rival and win them to himself. Hence he introduced a measure for the opening up to settlement of a great amount of land, including the region of the Pontine marshes, since these had already been filled in and were capable of cultivation. He did this through his brother Lucius Antonius, who was tribune;