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But this was mere idle talk. The people at this time resolved that a house should be presented to Caesar at public expense; for he had made public property of the place on the Palatine which he had bought for the purpose of erecting a residence upon it, and had consecrated it to Apollo, after a thunderbolt had descended upon it. Hence they voted him the house and also protection from any insult by deed or word;

Thereupon the majority gave heed to him and departed in various directions, while he with the remainder crossed over to Asia with the intention of going straight to Antony. When he reached Lesbos, however, and learned that Antony had gone on a campaign against the Medes and that Caesar and Lepidus had gone to war with each other, he decided to winter where he was;

So Sextus was executed in the consulship of Lucius Cornificius and one Sextus Pompeius. Caesar held games in the Circus in honour of the event, and set up for Antony a chariot in front of the rostra and statues in the temple of Concord, giving him also authority to hold banquets there with his wife and children, even as had once been voted in his own honour.

This was what Caesar was doing; as for Antony and the barbarians, their warfare was as follows. Publius Ventidius heard that Pacorus was gathering an army and invading Syria, and becoming afraid, since the cities had not yet become quiet and the legions were still scattered in their winter-quarters, he acted as follows, in order to secure delay on the part of his foe and to make up for the slowness of his own army.

As for Antony, he became more than ever a slave to the passion and the witchery of Cleopatra. Caesar in the meantime, now that Sextus had perished and affairs in Africa required settlement, went to Sicily as if intending to sail thither, but after delaying there for some time because of the bad weather, he gave up his plan of crossing;

For they fortified Metulum, the largest of their cities, and repulsed many assaults of the Romans, burned up many siege-engines, and laid low Caesar himself as he was trying to step from a wooden tower upon the wall.

then by night they destroyed all these men and set fire to their own houses, some killing themselves and some their wives and children besides, so that nothing whatever remained of this force to Caesar. For not only they but also such as were captured alive destroyed themselves voluntarily shortly afterward.

When these, then, had perished and the rest had been subdued without performing any exploit of note, Caesar made a campaign against the Pannonians. He had no complaint to bring against them, not having been wronged by them in any way, but he wanted both to give his soldiers practice and to support them at the expense of an alien people, for he regarded every demonstration against a weaker party as just, when it pleased the man who was their superior in arms.

It was against this people, then, that Caesar at that time conducted a campaign. At first he did not devastate or plunder at all, although they abandoned their villages in the plain; for he hoped to make them his subjects of their own free will. But when they harassed him as he advanced to Siscia, he became angry, burned their country, and took all the booty he could.

Caesar secured boats made by the allies in that vicinity, and after towing them through the Ister into the Savus, and through that stream into the Colops, he assailed the enemy with his infantry and ships together, and had some naval battles on the river.

Geminus, although expelled from Siscia, nevertheless recovered Pannonia by a few battles; and Valerius Messalla overthrew the Salassi and the others who had joined them in rebellion. Against the Dalmatians campaigns were made, first by Agrippa and later by Caesar also.

The most of them they themselves subjugated after undergoing many terrible experiences; for example, Caesar was wounded, rations of barley had to be given out to some of the soldiers instead of wheat, and in the case of others who had deserted their posts every tenth man was put to death. With the remaining tribes Statilius Taurus carried on the war.

Not only did he say this in Alexandria, but he sent a despatch to Rome as well, in order that it might secure ratification also from the people there. None of these despatches, however, was read in public; for Domitius and Sosius were consuls by this time, and being extremely devoted to him, refused to publish them to all the people, even though Caesar urged it upon them.

But, although they prevailed in this matter, Caesar won a victory in his turn by preventing any of Antony’s despatches regarding the Armenian king from being made known to the public; for he not only felt pity for the prince, inasmuch as he himself had been secretly in communication with him for the purpose of injuring Antony, but he also grudged Antony his triumph.

Now while Antony was engaged as described he had the effrontery to write to the senate that he wished to give up his office and put the whole administration of the state into the hands of that body and of the people; it was not his intention, of course, to do either, but he desired them under the influence of the hopes he aroused either to compel Caesar to give up his arms first, as being there at hand, or to conceive hatred for him if he should refuse to heed their commands.