11 Presentation - Cursus and Tiberius Gracchus 2

Provinces and Tributes

• A "province" originally was:
  • The tasks and the area of operations assigned to an officer with imperium - Ancient version of our “Rules of engagement”.
  • Military in character.
• By the end of the Second Punic War, a “province” also involved control in time of peace (by proconsuls and propraetors).
• AFTER THE SECOND PUNIC WAR:
  • Payments of tributes are imposed by governors of provinces to obtain supplies and funds to run the provinces.
• Control over the Mediterranean:
  • Spain
  • Macedonia + Greece
  • Asia Minor
  • Africa

Roman Politics of the 2nd Century BC

• Senate:

  • First half of the 2nd century BC: the heyday of Senatorial power.
  • 300 senators:
    • Former officers.
    • Selected by censors every 5 years.
    • For life (unless removed by the censors).

• Senatus Consultum:

  • Decides the tasks to assign to magistrates.
  • Grants funds to governors (pro-consuls, pro-praetors).
  • Extends the imperium: prorogatio.
  • Accepts treaties.
  • Grants Triumphs.

Cursus Honorum

• After the Second Punic War:

  • Series of laws to create the Cursus honorum: an obligatory sequence of offices, and the prerequisites for each of them:
    1. 10 years of military service.
    2. Quaestor.
    3. Aediles – Tribunes of the plebs.
    4. Praetors.
    5. Consuls.
    6. Censors.

• Second half of 2nd century BC:

  • New kind of politics:
    • No longer based on the support by fellow senators but on the support by crowds of citizens in Rome.
    • Only those close enough to Rome had the possibility to go and vote in the City.
    • Stronger difference between rich and poor.
    • Migration of a large number of poor citizens to the City.
    • It is a group easy to stir.
    • Secret vote during elections (from 139 BCE).

Politicians

• Politicians who took advantage of this situation:
  • Scipio Aemilianus
  • Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus
  • Gaius Sempronius Gracchus

Tiberius Gracchus: 133 BC

• From the wealthy and noble family of the Sempronii Gracchi.
• 133 BCE: tribune of the plebs.
  • Agrarian law:
    • Old law regulating State’s lands:
      • No more than 500 iugera of public land could be rented to a single citizen (=300 acres = 1/3 of Central Park, NY).
    • New land reform law by Tiberius:
      • The excess public land (beyond 500 iu.) is seized by the State and redistributed to poor Roman citizens.
      • The normative 500 iugera become private property (+ provisions for sons).
• The NEW agrarian law:
  • Why this law? Purpose?
    • More recruits for the Roman army:
      • Soldier-farmers had abandoned the fields and were impoverished (you need a minimum wealth to be allowed to fight).
    • To decrease the number of slave-run estates:
      • Injustice against Roman citizens (unfair competition).
      • Dangerous: First Slave Revolt in Sicily: from 136 BCE – still in progress (leader Eunus – ended in 132 BCE).
    • Decrease demographic pressure on the city of Rome.
    • To obtain fame.

Opposition and Killing of Tiberius Gracchus

• The Senate is against the proposal of the law.
• Nonetheless, Tiberius sends the law proposal to the Plebeian Assembly for approval.
  • Opposition by one of the tribunes of the plebs.
  • Tiberius looks for mediation:
    • No success.
  • UNPRECEDENTED ACT:
    • The obstructing tribune is removed from office by a vote of the Plebeian Assembly.
  • Finally, the law is approved.
• The killing:
  • The Senate still opposes the law.
  • Insufficient funds to the commission of three men (triumvirs) in charge of partitioning land.
  • UNPRECEDENTED ACT:
    • Treasury of kingdom of Pergamum is assigned to the Triumvirs by the Plebeian Assembly.
  • Tiberius wants to be re-elected tribune for the next year:
    • Never happened before: illegal? legal?
  • A group of senators and minions attacked Tiberius Gracchus at the temple of IOM during election day.
    • Tiberius is killed.

The Death of Tiberius: Two Accounts

• Plutarch, Life of Tiberius Gracchus 19 and 20:
  • As Tiberius himself turned to fly, someone laid hold of his garments. So he let his toga go and fled in his tunic. But he stumbled and fell to the ground among some bodies that lay in front of him. As he strove to rise to his feet, he received his first blow, as everybody admits, from Publius Satyreius, one of his colleagues, who smote him on the head with the leg of a bench […].
  • But the combination against him would seem to have arisen from the hatred and anger of the rich rather than from the pretexts which they alleged; and there is strong proof of this in their lawless and savage treatment of his dead body. For they would not listen to his brother's request that he might take up the body and bury it by night, but threw it into the river along with the other dead.
• Appian, The Civil wars 1.16:
  • In the tumult many of the Gracchans perished, and Gracchus himself, vainly circling round the temple, was slain at the door close by the statues of the kings. All the bodies were thrown by night into the Tiber.
  • So perished on the Capitol, and while still tribune, Gracchus, the son of that Gracchus who was twice consul, and of Cornelia, daughter of that Scipio who robbed Carthage of her supremacy. He lost his life in consequence of a most excellent design too violently pursued.

Gaius Gracchus

• Younger brother of Tiberius.
• Elected tribune for 123 BCE.
• RE-ELECTED tribune for 122 BCE:
  • Unprecedented act. His elder brother (Tiberius) had died trying.
• Legislation enacted:
  • Renewed his brother’s agrarian law.
  • Subsidized distributions of grain each month in Rome.
  • Jury of quaestiones perpetuae: to the equites.
  • Foundation of colonies.
    • Carthage is to be re-founded as a colony (failed attempt).
• The killing:
  • Campaign in 122 BCE for re-election to a third term for 121 BCE:
    • Failure.
  • In 121 BCE the Senate tried to revoke some of Gaius’s laws.
  • Gaius—as a private citizen—and his followers attend the Plebeian Assembly in the temple of IOM.
  • A guy gets killed – General commotion.
  • Gaius looks for shelter on the Aventine Hill:
    • In the temple of Diana Cornificia.
  • The first SENATUS CONSULTUM ULTIMUM (the ultimate advice of the Senate) is issued.
  • Then he crosses to Trastevere: suicide.
    • Near the wood of Furinna, where Villa Sciarra now stands.

Temple of Concord

• Such an ironic name … such an important location.

Conclusions

• Dichotomy in political styles from now on: politicians could be following either:
  • Traditional approach:
    • Alliances and coalitions within the senatorial order.
    • Optimates (singular: optimas).
  • Or New approach:
    • Looking for support from the body of citizens by the way of popularity.
    • Populares (singular: popularis).

War with Jugurtha (112-105)

• Beginning:
  • Internal war in Numidia.
• Eventually in 112 BC:
  • Jugurtha killed some Roman businessmen in the capital, Cirtha.
    • Declaration of war.
• Defeated by Gaius Marius, proconsul in 105 BCE:
  • Got the consulship against the will of his patron, Quintus Cecilius Metellus.
  • 1st consulship in 107 BCE.
  • Homo novus.
  • Triumph.
• Jugurtha in the Tullianum: “How cold this Roman bath is!”
• Marius associated himself with the tribune Saturninus to give land to his veterans:
  • Northern Africa – 103 BCE
  • Cimbri and Teutones: Germans

Germans Defeated by Marius

• Germans are not Gauls.
• Romans are defeated.
• Germans invade the province of Transalpine Gaul.
• Marius elected consul from 104 to 100 BCE:
  • 5 consulships in a row!
• Marius defeats the Germans.
  • The round victory temple of Largo Argentina was vowed by Q. Lutatius Catulus, the other consul at the Battle of Vercellae in 101 BCE.
• He’s given another Triumph.
• For the second time, association with the tribune Saturninus to give land to his veterans in 100 BCE
  • in Transalpine Gaul

Changes in the Roman Army

• The Roman army changed at the end of 2nd c BCE.
  • Changes to the equipment, in the legion formation (no maniples, but cohorts) and training.
  • Changes in the recruitment:
    • Started by Marius.
      • Roman proletarians are accepted as volunteers.
      • New forces were needed for the war against Jugurtha.
      • They need to be rewarded because they own nothing.
      • Wherefore, they are willing to follow their commanders also in forceful action - Source of lasting harm (?)
      • The real problem seems to be the presence of too many poor, not the people using them.

Problems at the End of 2nd Century BC

1. Increase number of poor citizens
2. Italian and Latin allies want Roman citizenship
   • Who tried to solve these problems? Tribunes of the plebs:
     • Tiberius Gracchus: killed in 133. Problem 1
     • Gaius Gracchus: killed in 123. Problem 1 and 2
     • Saturninus: killed in 100. Use of veterans to pass legislation
     • Livius Drusus, an OPTIMATES! Killed in 91
   • Social war (91-87 BC) solved problem number 2.
   • Problem 1 was never solved, sometimes it was mitigated.

Social War (91-87 BC)

• Livius Drusus, tribune of the plebs, is killed.
  • Socii (= allies) understand that:
    • the Roman people do not want to give them citizenship
    • They decide to rebel against Rome.
  • Rebellion - Social war = War of the allies
    • Guess who was part of this rebellion too?
      • The Samnites…
  • New confederation
    • Capital: Corfinium / Italica
    • New officers
  • Success in 91 and 90 BC
    • The socii were acquainted with Roman war methods: they had been part of the Roman army for centuries.
• Social War:
  • A conflict that could have been avoided …
    • The Romans realized they needed to grant citizenship
    • Offer of Roman citizenship in 90 BCE
      1. to the loyal communities
      2. to those communities stopping hostilities
    • Then, one year later, in 89 BCE:
      • Latin rights to the people of Cisalpine Gaul
    • Samnites did not give up
      • Stronghold: Nola

A New Problem

• Thanks to the Social war, there are now new citizens who can vote!
  • BUT new citizens’ votes are counted in a way to make them not-influential:
    • In 8 new tribes + the last ones to vote
    • There were already 35 tribes
• Publius Sulpicius Rufus, a tribune, in 88 bc proposes:
  • To distribute the new citizens in the existing 35 tribes
• Marius offers a hand to Sulpicius: votes of the equites (who are they?), but in exchange:
  • Command against Mithridates, king of Pontus
    • Already granted for next year as a proconsulship to the consul in office, Sulla

Sulla and Marius

• Sulla—consul in 88 BCE—was fighting against the last Social war rebels, the Samnites (in Nola)…
  • Thus, he was the general of an army located in Italy
• Sulla’s reaction to the loss of future command?
  • 1st march on Rome (88 BCE)- EVER
    • Illegal act.
    • Use of the army to seize power.
  • How to convince the army?
• Marius escapes to North Africa.
  • Enemy of the state.
  • Why in Africa?
    • Marius’ veterans had been granted land there
    • They were ready to protect him

Second March on Rome (83 BCE)

• While Sulla is fighting against Mithridates in Pontus,
  • One of the consuls, Cinna, wants to:
    • Redistribute the new citizens among the 35 tribes
  • Marius comes back from Africa and offers support
    • Rome taken by force by Marius and Cinna in 87 BCE
• 7th consulship of Marius in 86 BCE
  • Prophecy?
• Marius died of natural causes that same year
  • 71 years old
• Sulla hastened a peace with Mithridates
• Sulla’s second march on Rome in 83 BCE
  • Marius’ son killed in 82 BCE: Collina gate; Praeneste.

Sulla’s First Act

• Proscriptions (82-81 BCE)
  • Lists of people (citizens and non) to be killed with impunity:
    • No trial
    • Reward for killing
    • Property auctioned
    • Sons and grandsons excluded from public office
    • From November 82 to June 81 BCE = 8 months
    • Between 500-1500 proscribed persons

Sulla’s Program

• Title: “Dictator to bring order back to the State and formulate new laws” (from the end of 82 to the end of 81 BC)
  • Dictator legibus scribundis et rei publicae constituendae
• Target of his reforms:
  • To bring the situation back to a time before that of the Gracchi
    • The heyday of the Senate
• Senate’s weakness:
  • Its predominance could be challenged
    • Sulla wants to find a solution

Sulla’s Program: First Part

• Sulla’s solution:
  • Doubled size of senate: 600 members
    • Equites are co-opted
      • Make your enemy into your friend
    • 20 quaestors (lowest office)
    • One becomes a senator right after being quaestor
      • Not any more by decision of censors every 5 years
  • Restrictions:
    • Cursus honorum: respect it
    • Age restrictions
    • 10 years of interval between re-election to the same office
      • Especially the consulship
  • Increase of the support base to create a political arena in which no senator was much more influent than the other peer senators.

Sulla’s Program: Second Part

• Tribunate:
  • “a shadow without substance” (Velleius Paterculus 2.30).
  • No further office after the tribunate.
  • Legislative proposals:
    • Law proposals need pre-approval by the Senate before presenting them to the plebeian assembly to be voted on.
  • Veto power left intact.
  • Jury duties:
    • Only to senators
  • No more subsidized grain distributions.
  • Settling veterans + punish communities who opposed him
    • The proverbial “kill two birds with one stone”
    • Land requisitions
  • Samnites
    • Pompeii turned into a colony
• 79 BCE: private citizen. 78 BCE died.

The Rise of Pompeius (aka Pompey)

• From a noble family (his father was a senator).
• Helped Sulla during his Second March on Rome in 83 BCE
  • Raised 3 legions as a private citizen
• Conquered back for Sulla the provinces of Africa and Sicily from the Marian party
  • First triumph in 81 BCE
    • “The Great”
• Defeated Sertorius’ forces in Spain (72 BCE)
  • Spain ruled by this proscribed senator (80-73 bc)
  • Second triumph
• Helped with Spartacus’s slave revolt (73-71 BCE)
  • But actually Crassus did most of it

Pompey and Crassus Consuls in 70 BCE

• Right after victory over Spartacus
• Crassus:
  • Age OK
  • Cursus honorum OK
• Pompeius
  • Age NOT OK (35 y.o.)
  • Cursus Honorum NOT OK: just an eques
• While Crassus and Pompeius are consuls:
  • Restoration of the full powers of the tribunes of the plebs
  • Juries
    • 2/3 made of equites (solved problem)

Still Pompeius

• In 67 BCE he defeated the PIRATES in the Mediterranean
  • In 74 BC pirates had kidnapped a young Caesar on his way to island of Rhodes
  • 3 years command
  • Proconsul with authority on the entire Mediterranean
  • Authority equal but not superior to that of the other proconsuls
  • Work done in 3 months
• In 63 BCE he defeat of Mithridates, king of Pontus

Catiline’s Rising – 63 BCE

• He was not in Rome during Catiline’s rising
• Catiline was from a noble Roman family
• Catiline tried to be consul three times = very expensive
  • His platform: debt cancellation and redistribution of private land.
  • Elections in 66 BCE: charged with extortion, thus he could not run
  • Then, he lost the elections twice …
    1. In 64 BCE for consulate of 63 BCE: defeated by Cicero and Antonius Hybrida.
    2. In 63 BCE for consulate of 62 BCE.
    • Centuriate assembly
      • Voting was controlled by the wealthier people
    • Catiline is defeated
  • In case of defeat
    • He had planned an armed revolution
  • Cicero, consul, denounced the conspiracy at the end of 63 BCE
  • Early 62 BCE: Catiline was killed with all his supporters in the final battle in Etruria

Catiline's Rising - 63 BC

• Why did Catiline want a revolution?
  • Power?
    • Tried to be consul three times
      • Using the normal channel of political fight
  • Get rid of debts?
    • Indebted because of money necessary to get votes.
    • Called for cancellation of debts for all, and land redistribution.
  • Wanted a real change in the Roman state?
    • Tried to work the system within: run for consul three times
      • No success all the times.
    • Tried to work the system without
      • Armed revolution. - How much is this different from Sulla’s attitude?

Pompey Back from Pontus

• In 62 BCE Pompey came back from Pontus
  • Victory over Mithridates VI
  • His third triumph (61 BCE)
    • The biggest plunder to date
    • Now even richer than Crassus
    • Wealth distributed to:
      • State treasury
      • His soldiers
  • Built a monumental complex: a theatre complex
    • After the fashion of the victory temples,
    • Which featured the first stone theatre of Rome, open in 55 BCE.

Pompey’s Political Stalemate

• After the triumph, Pompey discharged his army
  • No will to seize power: he was unlike Sulla
• But Pompey needed the Senate to:
  1. Ratify his settlements in Asia Minor
  2. Grant land to his veterans
     • This turned out to be a problem!
       • Public attention given to a scandal: Clodius’s night escapade with Caesar’s wife
       • Senate’s obstruction: afraid of giving too much fame to Pompey
• Pompey gets irritated.

Is Cato a Liability for the Republic?

• Cato the Younger, a die-hard republican, “he speaks in the Senate as though he were living in Plato’s republic instead of Romulus cesspool” [Cicero]
  • Cato blocked motions in favor of:
    1. The tax collecting syndicate (the pubblicani) that needed a bailout on the tax collection of Asia.
       • Crassus had promised his help
    2. Caesar’s request to be a consular candidate in absentia (not physically present) was refused
       • He was about to celebrate a granted triumph (pro- pretor in Further Spain): pomerium-candidacy problem
       • Caesar’s bold act:
         • Gave up the triumph
         • Crossed the pomerium
         • Enrolled as a consular candidate

First Triumvirate – 60 BCE

• Three powerful men are unhappy with the Senate
  • What is the result?
    • They joined forces in 60 BC FIRST TRIUMVIRATE
      • Pompey:
        • Veterans
      • Crassus:
        • Equites
      • Caesar:
        • People
    • Caesar was elected consul

Caesar Consul in 59 BCE

• What was Caesar able to do?
  • He granted land to Pompey’s veterans
  • The tax-collectors got the bailout: Crassus happy
  • Land distribution: people are happy
  • Changed his future proconsular province (see below)
• 59 BC: the year of the consulship of Julius and Caesar
  • Bibulus (the other consular colleague) was ousted.
• What about next year?
  • Proconsular command for 5+5 years in 3 provinces:
    • Illyricum
    • Cisalpine Gaul
    • Transalpine Gaul

Caesar in Gaul: 58-51 BCE - Why Gaul?

• Caesar had the support of the people already, but
• He needed to:
  1. Secure the support of the people
     • The crowd is fickle - The crowd needed a constant stream of wealth to shower on it for games, food distribution, etc.
  2. Get support from soldiers
     • He needed his own loyal legions - Military glory
• Result: Gallia Comata was conquered and plundered.

While Caesar in Gallia

• Marcus Licinius Crassus and his younger son Publius Licinius Crassus died fighting against the Parthians at the battle of Carrhae (53 BC)
  • The legionary standards were lost!!!

Civil War Gets Closer

• While Caesar in Gaul
  • Pompey slowly stopped to support him.
    • WHY?
      • Pompey did not want to become “the second” in Rome:
        • Caesar had acquired military glory and wealth
        • And now was looking for a second consulship
      • How to stop Caesar?
        • Only one option for Pompey
          • To ally with the enemies of Caesar, the Optimates
          • They want to pass legislation removing command from Caesar and preventing candidacy for a second consulship
• Prospects of civil war: 49-8 BCE
  • The problem:
    • Caesar wanted to be authorized to stand as a candidate for consulship in absentia, because
      • As long as he was a state officer he had political immunity
    • His enemies, the Optimates, wanted to put him on trial as soon as he had relinquished the command of Gaul, and thus was a private citizen.
  • Caesar proposes compromises
    • But Cato convinces the Senate not to accept them
      • Cato wants to eliminate Caesar politically

The Crossing of the Rubicon

• Around January 10th, 49 BCE (actually November, 50 BCE)
  • Rubicon river was crossed by Caesar’s troops
    • Boundary of Cisalpine Gaul
    • Illegal entrance in Italy
    • “ALEA IACTA EST” (Suetonius, Deified Iulius 31) CIVIL WAR
    • Unexpected action by Caesar
      • Why “unexpected”?
        • Pompey and Senate were not prepared
        • They flee Italy
  • Final battle in Greece in 48 BCE: Pharsalus (Greece)
    • “This is how they wanted it. I, Gaius Caesar, after all my achievements, would have been condemned in the courts if I had not sought the help of the military” (Suetonius, Deified Iulius 30.4)

Dictatorships

• Death of Pompey in Alexandria of Egypt
  • Relationship between Cleopatra and Caesar
• Caesar: consul and dictator from 49 to 44 BCE
• From February 44 BCE
  • Perpetual dictatorship
• A new Sulla?
  • Not at all!
    • No proscriptions
    • Clementia = forgiveness
    • Roman citizenship to Cisalpine Gaul (in 49 BCE)
    • Attention to the debt situation
      • Mitigation of the problem
    • New colonies: for poor and veterans (i.e. Carthage)
    • Roman citizenship to Cisalpine Gaul (in 49 BCE)
    • Fixed the Roman calendar
    • Right to nominate candidate for some offices

15 March 44 BCE – The Ides of March

• LOCATION: Senate house in the theatre complex of Pompey
• Kai su teknon
  • καὶ σύ, τέκνον (kai su, teknon) = you too, son
  • Paternal reproach in Greek
    • Canfora and Wolff
  • A threatening prediction in Greek
    • Ziogas (2015)
  • A curse in Greek (one of the popular languages of magic)
    • Russell (1980) translates it with “To the hell with you, lad”
    • “Caesar died with a curse on his lips”

Why Was Caesar Killed?

• Lack of respect for the FORMS of the Republic According to Caesar’s words, the Republic was “nothing, a mere name with neither form nor substance” (Suetonius, Deified Iulius 77)
  • Perpetual dictator
  • Consul every year
  • Power to nominate the candidates for most offices
  • New members in the Senate
  • Desire to receive divine honors (?)
• The assassination was NOT the result of personal feuds, but due to political reasons
  • The conspirators had NOT been offended or disrespected by Caesar.
  • 60 something senators out of 900.

What After the Murder?

• Did the assassins (and their leaders, Brutus and Cassius) have a plan for what to do after the murder?
  • It seems they had more expectations than a plan
    • They were expecting from the Senate a general eagerness to go back to Sulla’s time
    • They did not take into account the common people’s reaction

Reactions to the Assassination of Caesar

• On the day of his death Caesar was:
  • One of the two consuls
  • Perpetual dictator
• CAESAR ASSOCIATES
  • Mark Antony: the other consul
  • Lepidus: magister equitum – vice dictator
• What are they going to do?
• COMPROMISE
  • Caesar’s legislation and appointments still valid
  • No actions against the assassins = amnesty
    • To avoid civil war

Caesar’s Funeral and Afterward

• Funeral of Caesar
  • Two versions (slightly different)
• Antony reads Caesar’s will
• The Roman populace gets upset
• Brutus + Cassius leave Rome,
  • Then, went to their provinces in the Near East

Octavian’s Rise

• Gaius Octavius
  • Grandnephew of Caesar.
  • Appointed heir.
  • Adopted.
    • GAIUS IULIUS CAESAR OCTAVIANUS
• Back in Rome.
• Octavian got people’s support
  • Paid the 300 sesterces of Cesar’s bequest to each single citizen of Rome
  • Raised troops privately

The Situation Escalated Quickly

• Antony wanted to take the place of the governor of Cisalpine Gaul – Decimus Brutus (one of the killers of Caesar)
  • Siege of Mutina
• The Senate wants to get rid of Mark Antony
  • Cicero: Philippics (speeches against Antony)
• Battle of Mutina
  • The consuls of 43 BCE (Hirtius and Pansa) were sent against Mark Antony
    • Together with Octavian’s private troops
      • By a special law Octavian was granted
        • imperium (below that of the consuls);
        • membership in the Senate.
  • Antony was defeated at Mutina and fled to Transalpine Gaul (where Lepidus was)
  • The consuls Hirtius and Pansa died.
  • The Senate tried to absorb Octavian’s private troops into the regular Roman army.
  • Octavian marched on Rome at the head of his troops
    • Appointed consul for the remainder of 43 BCE
      • Even if he:
        • was too young (19)
        • had not held any office.

Second Triumvirate

• TRIUMVIRI REIPUBLICAE CONSTITUENDAE CONSULARI POTESTATE
  • TRIUMVIRS FOR THE RESTORATION OF THE STATE with consular power
  • Title similar to Sulla’s Dictator legibus scribundis et rei publicae constituendae
    • To make laws
    • To pass judgments
    • To nominate all magistrates
  • Proscriptions:
    • to get money for a new army,
    • to remove enemies:
      • Caesar’s clementia had not worked …
      • Cicero was killed (as per request of Mark Antony)

Defeat of Assassins of Caesar (42)

• 42 BCE: Caesar was deified
  • Quintilis Iulius (July)
• Mark Antony and Octavian started a war against Brutus and Cassius, the killers of Caesar
  • Battle of Philippi
    • Suicide
• Roman provinces split among the victors
  • Antony: the East.
  • Octavian: the West (with Italy).
  • Lepidus: what is left, Africa.

Lepidus is Ousted

• Octavian defeats Sextus Pompey (one of the sons of Pompey) in Sicily
  • Thanks to Agrippa
• Lepidus tries to displace Octavian (he was there to help, since Africa is close to Sicily)
  • He tried to get Sextus’ legions
  • His own troops sided with Octavian…
• Lepidus
  • In exile at Circeii (beach resort to the South of Rome)
  • Still Pontifex Maximus
    • Highest priesthood in the city of Rome

Meanwhile in the East

• Mark Antony