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The following is contained in the Fiftieth Book of Dio's Rome:

How Octavian and Antony began to fight one another (chs. 1-14)
How Octavian conquered Antony at Actium (chs. 15-35)

1. Although the Roman people's republican form of government had been taken away from them, they had still not reached the situation, strictly speaking, of being ruled by a monarchy. Antony and Octavian, who controlled the affairs of state, did so with equal authority, since they had divided by lot most of the functions of government. For the rest, although in theory they regarded themselves as exercising these in common, in practice each strove to arrogate powers to himself, according to the success of either in gaining an advantage over the other. But later, when Sextus Pompeius had been put to death, when the king of Armenia had been captured by Antony, when hostilities against Octavian's forces had ceased, and no trouble threatened in Parthia, then the two men openly turned against one another, and the Roman people was undeniably enslaved.

The causes of the war and the pretexts which each leader put forward were as follows. Antony accused Octavian of having removed Lepidus from his office of triumvir, and of having appropriated both the territory and the troops which had been under the last-named and Sextus's control, and which ought to have been shared with Antony: he demanded that Octavian should transfer to him half of these forces, and in addition half the soldiers who had been conscripted in those parts of Italy which belonged to them both. Octavian countered with the charge that Antony was still keeping possession of Egypt and other territories without having drawn them by lot; that he had executed Sextus Pompeius, whom Octavian had willingly spared, so he claimed; and that by having tricked, arrested and put in chains the king of Armenia, he had brought the Roman people into great disrepute. He likewise demanded a halfshare of Antony's conquests, and above all denounced Antony for his union with Cleopatra, for begetting their children whom he had acknowledged as his own, and for the gifts he had made to them. In particular he attacked Antony because he was using the name Caesarion for Cleopatra's son by Julius Caesar, and thus making him a member of the Caesarian family.

2. These were the accusations which they brought against one another, and so in a sense employed to defend their actions. They were exchanged partly through private letters and partly through public speeches delivered by Octavian and written pronouncements despatched by Antony. On the same pretext they repeatedly sent envoys back and forth, partly because they wished to create the impression that their respective charges were well founded, but also to try to discover one another's strength. All this time they were gathering funds, avowedly for some different purpose, and making all the other preparations for war, as though it were against some different opponent, until the moment when Gnaeus Domitius and Gaius Sosius. both supporters of Antony, became consuls. From that time they dropped all further concealment and set their course uncompromisingly for war. These events came about as follows.

Domitius, as a man who had experienced many reverses in public life, did not openly introduce any measures of radical change. Sosius, on the other hand, was a stranger to shifts of fortune, and so on the first day of the next month he delivered a speech which praised Antony and attacked Octavian at length. Indeed he would have immediately proposed a motion hostile to Octavian, had not Nonius Balbus, one ofthe tribunes, interposed his veto. Octavian, it seems, had suspected Sosius's intention, andjudged that he should neither ignore it nor, by opposing it, create the impression that he was taking the first step in the war. He therefore refrained from entering the Senate during this period, and even ceased to reside in the capital at all. He invented some excuse and proceeded to stay outside the city, not only for the reasons already given, but also so as to study at leisure the reports he received, and then decide after due consideration what action he should take.

But not long afterwards he returned and summoned a meeting of the Senate which he attended, surrounded with a guard of soldiers and a number of personal supporters who carried daggers concealed about them. Then, sitting upon his chair of state with the consuls, he made a long speech defending his actions in moderate terms, and launching many accusations against Sosius and Antony. Neither of the consuls nor any of the senators dared to utter a word in reply, whereupon Octavian named a date for a further meeting of the Senate, and announced that he would establish the injustice of Antony's actions by means of certain documents. Then the consuls, since they did not dare to speak in opposition but did not tolerate being silenced, left the city secretly before the date fixed for the next meeting. Later they travelled to join Antony, and not a few of the other senators joined them. When Octavian discovered this, he gave it out that he had sent them away of his own accord: he was anxious that nobody should think they had abandoned him for any wrongful action on his part, and he added that any other senators who wished to join Antony were free to leave in safety.

3. The departure of these men from the Senate was offset by the arrival of other senators, who in turn had fled from Antony and now joined Octavian. These included Titius and Plancus, in spite of the fact that they were among the men whom Antony had honoured most highly and who knew all his secrets. The sequence of events had been as follows. After the consuls had left, as I have described, and Octavian had summoned the Senate in their absence, spoken at length and read out the documents he wished to make public, these matters were reported to Antony. He in turn summoned a kind of senatorial council drawn from his supporters: the choice between war and peace was debated at length on both sides, and finally Antony decided in favour of war and of renouncing his marriage to Octavia. It was then that Titius and Plancus, either on account of some personal quarrel with Antony, or because they had grounds for resentment against Cleopatra, abandoned Antony's cause.
Octavian welcomed them most warmly and learned from them all about Antony's affairs -his present actions, his future plans, the provisions of his will and the name of the man who held the document -for Titius and Plancus had been among the witnesses to it. These discoveries angered Octavian even more violently than before, and he did not scruple to search out the will, seize it, bring it into the Senate and later the assembly, and read it out in public. Although Octavian had no right whatever to do this, yet the provisions of the will were such that none of the citizens blamed him for his action. 12 Antony had testified to Caesarion that he was without doubt Julius Caesar's son, had made enormous settlements upon his children by the Egyptian queen, whom he was bringing up, and had ordered that his body should be buried in Alexandria by Cleopatra's

4. The Romans were so outraged by these disclosures that they were willing to believe that other rumours current at the time were equally true, namely that if Antony were victorious, he would hand over the city of Rome to Cleopatra and transfer the seat of government to Egypt. Public hostility became so intense that not only Antony's enemies, and those who had not hitherto taken sides, but even his closest friends, utterly condemned his action. They were dismayed at what had been read out, and in their anxiety to dispel any suspicion of themselves on Octavian's part, spoke in the same terms as the rest. They stripped Antony of the consulship for which he had been designated in advance, and of all other authority vested in him. They did not formally declare him a public enemy, since they feared that his supporters would also have to be classed as enemies if they did not abandon Antony, but their actions showed their feelings more clearly than any form of words. They passed a resolution that Antony's adherents would be pardoned and commended, if they would desert him. They then declared war outright upon Cleopatra, put on their military cloaks, as if Antony were close at hand, and went to the temple of Bellona. There, with Octavian officiating as fetialis, they carried out the rites which are customary before a declaration of war. These proceedings were directed formally against Cleopatra, but in reality against Antony.

She had, it was believed, enslaved him so completely that she had persuaded him to act as gymnasiarch for the Alexandrians; she was saluted by him as 'queen' and as 'mistress', and she had Roman soldiers in her bodyguard, all of whom had her name inscribed upon their shields. She visited the market place with Antony, presided with him over festivals and at the hearing of lawsuits, rode with him on horseback even in the cities, or else was carried in a litter, while Antony followed on foot together with her eunuchs. He also referred to his headquarters as 'the palace', sometimes carried an Oriental dagger in his belt, wore clothes which were completely alien to Roman custom, and appeared in public seated upon a gilded couch or chair. Painters and sculptors depicted him with Cleopatra, he being represented as Osiris or Dionysus, and she as Selene or Isis, and it was this practice more than anything else which gave the impression that she had laid him under some spell and deprived him of his wits. Indeed she so enchanted and enthralled not only Antony but all the others who counted for anything with him that she came to entertain the hope that she would rule the Romans as well, and whenever she took an oath, the most potent phrase she used were the words, 'So surely as I shall one day give judgment on the Capitol.'

6. This was the reason why the Romans voted to declare war against Cleopatra, but they passed no such declaration against Antony. They knew very well that he would be at war with them in any event, since there was no prospect that he would give up the queen and come over to Octavian's side, and they wished to have this additional charge to lay against him that he had of his own accord declared war for the sake of the Egyptian woman against his own country, even though nobody there had caused him any personal harm whatever.
Both sides, then, set themselves urgently to mobilize the men of fighting age, money was raised from every quarter, and warlike stores and material were assembled with all possible speed. The preparations far exceeded anything that had been seen before, for all the nations I shall mention took part in the war on one side or the other.

Octavian, in the first place, controlled Italy. He had brought over to his side all those who had been given land by Antony, partly by frightening them since they were few in number, and partly by benefiting them in various ways: for example, among other acts, he personally granted a new charter to the colonists who had settled in Bononia, so as to give the impression that the colony had originally been established by him. Besides Italy, he controlled Gaul; Spain; Illyricum; the provinces of Africa, including not only those people who had previously been under Roman rule (except for the inhabitants of Cyrenaica), but also those who had been subjects of Bogud and later of Bocchus; Sardinia; Sicily; and the other islands adjacent to those parts of the mainland I have mentioned.

Antony's territories included the provinces ruled by the Romans on the continent of Asia; the regions of Thrace, Greece and Macedonia; the Egyptians; the Cyrenaicans and the surrounding country; the islanders living in their vicinity; and virtually all the kings and princes whose territories bordered that part of the Roman empire which was under his control. Some of these rulers took the field themselves: others were represented by subordinates. Both sides entered the war with such intense conviction that the alliances they made with the two leaders were confirmed by oaths of allegiance.

…

15. Various officers gave different advice, but it was Cleopatra's opinion which prevailed. Her view was that they should leave garrisons to hold the best defensive positions, and that the rest of the army should return with Antony and herself to Egypt. In reaching this conclusion, she had been influenced by various omens which had disturbed her. Some swallows had built their nests about her tent and under the poop of the flagship in which she was sailing, and milk and blood together had oozed out of beeswax. At this time too the statues of her and of Antony attired as gods, which the Athenians had placed on the Acropolis, had been struck by thunderbolts and flung down into the theatre. These portents, which depressed the spirits of the army, and the sickness which weakened their strength, caused Cleopatra to lose heart, and this in turn affected Antony. They did not wish to sail away secretly, nor yet openly, as if they were turning tail, for fear of the effect upon their allies; it seemed best to disguise their departure under the semblance of preparing for a sea battle, for such a plan would allow them to force their way through should they meet with resistance. Accordingly they selected the best of their ships and set fire to the rest. This action was plausible because the numbers of the crews had been reduced through losses and desertions, and, next, they secretly loaded all their most valuable possessions aboard by night. Finally, when the ships were ready, Antony summoned his troops and addressed them as follows.

…

23. When he had delivered this speech, Antony ordered all his most prominent supporters to 'embark, to forestall any possibility that they might change their allegiance if left on their own, as Dellius and some other deserters had done. He also took aboard large contingents of archers, slingers and heavy infantry. He had noted that the size of Octavian's ships and the numbers of his marines had played a great part in the defeat of Sextus Pompeius, and so he had given his ships much higher sides than those of his opponents. He had built only a few triremes, but some of his ships were 'fours' and some 'tens"43 and the rest were of intermediate size. He had constructed high turrets on their decks and embarked large numbers of soldiers, who could fight as it were from battlements. Octavian for his part was taking note of his opponents' armament and making his own preparations. When he learned of their intentions from Dellius and from others, he called his troops together and addressed them as follows.

24. 'Soldiers, there is one conclusion that I have reached, both from the experience of others and at first hand: it is a truth I have taken to heart above all else, and I urge you too to keep it before you. This is that in all the greatest enterprises of war, or indeed in human affairs of any kind, victory comes to those whose thoughts and deeds follow the path of justice and of reverence for the gods. No matter how great the size and strength of our force might be great enough perhaps to make the man who had chosen the lessjust course of action expect to win with its help - still I base my confidence far more upon the principles which are at stake in this war than upon the advantage of numbers. We Romans are the rulers of the greatest and best parts of the world, and yet we find ourselves spurned and trampled upon by a woman of Egypt.

This disgraces our fathers, who defeated Pyrrhus, Philip of Macedon, Perseus and Antiochus; who uprooted the Numantines and the Carthaginians from their homes; whose swords slew the Cimbri and the Ambroncs. It disgraces our own generation, who have conquered the Gauls, subdued the Pannonians, marched as far as the Danube and beyond. the Rhine, and crossed the sea to Britami. The men who achieved these feats of arms I have named would be cut to the heart if ever they knew that we have been overcome by this pestilence of a woman. Would we not utterly dishonour ourselves if, after surpassing all other nations in valour, we then meekly endured the insults of this rabble, the natives of Alexandria and of Egypt. For what more ignoble or more exact name could one give them? They worship reptiles and beasts as gods, they embalm their bodies to make them appear immortal, they are most forward in effrontery, but most backward in courage. Worst of all, they are not ruled by a man, but are the slaves of a woman, and yet they have dared to claim our possessions, and to employ our fellow countrymen to lay hands on them, as if we would ever consent to surrender the prosperity which belongs to us.

25. 'Who would not tear his hair at the sight of Roman soldiers serving as bodyguards of this queen? Who would not groan at hearing that Roman knights and senators grovel before her like eumichs? Who would not weep when he sees and hears what Antony has become? This man has twice been consul and many times Imperator. He was appointed with me to take charge of the affairs of state and entrusted with the government of many cities and the command of many legions. Now he has abandoned his whole ancestral way of life, has embraced alien and barbaric customs, has ceased to honour us, his fellow-countrymen, or our laws, or his fathers' gods. Instead, he makes obeisance to that creature as if she were an Isis or a Selene, names her children Sun and Moon, and finally adopts for himself the title of Osiris or Dionysus. And to crown it all, he bestows gifts of whole islands and parts of continents as though he were master of the entire earth and sea. These things must seem to you amazing and hardly to be believed, but that should only make you the more angry. For if an event which defies belief turns out to be true, if Antony's self-indulgence leads, him into actions of which even the bare mention is painful to hear, it is only reasonable that your anger should exceed all bounds.

26. 'And yet, I myself was at first so attached to him that I granted him a share in our command, gave to him my sister in marriage, and transferred legions to his army. After that, I was so kindly and warmly disposed to him that I shrank from waging war merely because he insulted my sister, neglected the children she had borne him, preferred the Egyptian to her, and presented that woman's children with almost all your possessions ? or indeed because of any other of his provocations. I acted so, first, because I did not think it right to treat Antony in the same way as Cleopatra. I considered her, on account both of her foreign birth and of her actions, to be an enemy of Rome, but Antony to be a citizen of Rome, who could still, I believed, be brought to reason.

'Later still I hoped that he might, if not voluntarily, at least under pressure, decide to change his course in consequence of the decrees that were passed against her. It was for these reasons that I did not declare war upon him at an. But he has treated all my efforts with contempt and disdain, and refuses to be pardoned, although we offer him our pardon, or pitied, although we offer him our pity. He is either blind to reason or mad, for I have heard and can believe that he is bewitched by that accursed woman, and therefore disregards all our efforts to show him goodwill and humanity. And so, being enslaved by her, he plunges into war with all its attendant dangers which he has accepted for her sake, against ourselves and against his country. What choice, then, remains to us, save our duty to oppose him together with Cleopatra and fight him off?

27. 'Henceforth, then, let nobody consider him to be a Roman citizen, but rather an Egyptian: let us not call him Antony, but rather Serapis, nor think of him as ever having, been consul or Imperator, but only gymnasiarch. He has made these choices of his own accord: he has discarded all the august titles of his native land and become a cymbal player from Canopus.
'And let no one fear him as a soldier, whose efforts could decide the issue of the war. Even in the past he was of no real consequence, as those of you who defeated him at Mutina know well enough. And even if at one time he showed some valour when he served with our army, you can rest assured that he has now lost it beyond recall through the change in his manner of fife. It is impossible for anyone who indulges in a life of royal luxury and pampers himself as a woman to conceive a manly thought or do a manly deed, since it cannot but follow that a man's whole being is moulded by the habits of his daily life. A proof of this is that in the one war he has waged in all this time and the one expedition he has undertaken, he threw away the lives of huge numbers of citizens in his battles, returned in complete disgrace from Phraaspa, and incurred further terrible losses in his retreat.

'To sum up, if it were a matter of being called upon to cavort in some ridiculous dance or cut some erotic caper, Antony would have no rival - for these are the specialities in which he has trained himself. But when it comes to weapons and fighting, what has anyone to fear from him? The fitness of his body? But he has become effeminate and his homosexuality has worn him out. His piety towards our gods? But he has declared war upon them and upon his native land. His loyalty towards his allies? Everyone knows how he tricked and then imprisoned the king ofArmenia. His kindness to his friends? We have all seen the men who have died a cruel death at his hands. His popularity among his troops? But who, even among them, has not condemned him? The evidence for this is the number of his soldiers who join us every day. I believe that all our citizens will do this, just as happened once before, when he was on his way from Brundisium to Gaul. So long as they hoped to get rich without danger, some were happy to take his side. But they will not choose to fight against us, their own countrymen, for what does not belong to them, least of all when by joining us they can protect their lives and their property without risk.

'Someone will say that Antony has many allies and great wealth on his side. Tell me then, what has been our record in the past in conquering the inhabitants of Asia? The famous Scipio Asiaticus can answer for this, or Sulla the Fortunate, or Lucullus, or Pompey the Great, or my father, Julius Caesar. Or for that matter you yourselves, when you defeated the armies of Brutus and Cassius. It follows, then, that if you believe that the wealth of Antony and his allies is so much greater than that of the, earlier kingdoms of Asia, you should be all the more eager to take it for yourselves. It is the greatest contests which offer the greatest rewards, and make it worth while to engage in them. But, in the end, I cannot describe to you any greater prize than that of upholding the renown which your forefathers won, of preserving the proud tradition of your native land, of punishing those who have rebelled against us, of conquering and ruling over all mankind, and of allowing no woman to make herself equal to a man.

'You who are serving with me here fought valiantly against the Taurisci, the Iapydes, the Dalmatians and the Pannonians, and often it was only to take a few walls and a patch of barren soil. You subdued all those tribes, although they are among the most warlike opponents in the world; you fought against Sextus Pompeius to win nothing more than Sicily, and against this very Antony only to capture Mutina, and you fought so bravely that you overcame both of them. I cannot believe that you will show any less courage against this woman who covets all your possessions, against her husband who has settled all your property upon her children, and against their fine comrades and table companions, whom they themselves nickname "councillors of the privy". How could this be? Because of the size of their army? No army can overcome valour by sheer numbers. Because of their race? Theirs has been trained to carry loads rather than to bear arms. Because of their experience? They know more about rowing than about fighting at sea. For my part I can even feel ashamed to go into action against such opponents, since we can win no fame by conquering them; only disgrace should we be defeated.

29. 'You must not imagine that the size of their ships or the stoutness of their timbers is any match for our courage, What ship has ever killed or wounded any by its own efforts? I believe that their height and their solid construction will make them more difficult for their rowers to keep under way, and less responsive for their helmsmen to steer. What use can ships like these be to the fighting?men aboard when they can attack neither head-on nor abeam, the two, manoeuvres which you know are essential in naval warfare? I do not suppose that they intend to use infantry tactics against us at sea, nor are they thinking of shutting themselves up behind wooden walls and inviting a siege, so to speak, since it could only be to our advantage if we were faced with an immobile wooden barrier. If their ships remain motionless, as if they were moored there, we can rip them open with our rams, or else bombard them from a distance with our siege engines, or burn them to the water's edge with our incendiary missiles. On the other hand, if they do venture to move, they will be too slow either to overtake or to escape our vessels: their weight makes them too cumbersome to cause damage to us, and their size makes them most liable to suffer it themselves.

30. I need not waste any more words on their fleet, since we have already had many encounters with it, both off Leucas and lately in these waters. So far from finding ourselves inferior to them, we have every time gained the upper hand. You can take heart now not so much from my words as from your own actions, and resolve to put an end to the whole war without further delay. And you can rest assured that, if we conquer today, we shall have no more to do. It is a general rule of human nature that when a man fails at his first trial of strength, he becomes discouraged for any others. In our case, we are so indisputably superior to our enemies on land that we could beat them even if they were coming fresh to the contest. . 'They themselves know this so well ? and here let me give you the intelligence I have received that they have lost their nerve at what has already happened, and despair of saving their lives if they remain in their positions. So they are trying now to flee to some destination or other, and are making this sortie not to offer battle but to find a way of escape. They have loaded into their ships the best and most valuable of their possessions in the hope of breaking out with them if they can. And so, since they have clearly admitted that they are Weaker than us, and since they carry the prizes of victory in their ships, let us not allow them to slip away anywhere else, but defeat them here on the spot and make all these treasures our own.'

31. Such was the speech that Octavian delivered. After this he drew up a plan to allow Antony's ships to sail through, and then to attack from the rear as they fled. For his part, he hoped that his vessels could muster enough speed to capture Antony and Cleopatra quickly, and he calculated that once it became dear that they were trying to escape, he could, through their action, persuade the rest to surrender without fighting. But this scheme was opposed by Agrippa, who feared that their ships, which were using oars, would be too slow to catch the fugitives, who intended to hoist sails. Also a violent rainstorm accompanied by a tremendous wind had in the meanwhile struck Antony's fleet, leaving it in total confusion, though it had not touched his own, and this gave him some confidence that he would win easily enough. So he abandoned his plan, and, like Antony, posted large numbers of infantry on his ships. He also embarked his subordinates in auxiliary craft: they were to move rapidly between the ships, giving the necessary instructions to the men in action, and reporting back all that he needed to know. Then he waited for the enemy to sail out.

At the sound of the trumpet Antony's fleet began to move, and, keeping close together, formed their line a little w ay outside the strait, but then advanced no further. Octavian put out, as if to engage should the enemy stand their ground, or else to make them retire. But when they neither came out against him, nor turned away, but stayed in position and even increased the density of their closely packed formation, Octavian halted his advance, being in doubt as to what to do. He ordered his rowers to let their oars rest in the water, and waited for a while; after this he suddenly made a signal and, advancing both his wings, rounded his line in the form of an enveloping crescent. His object was to encircle the enemy if possible, or, if not, at least to break up their formation. Antony was alarmed by this outflanking and encircling manoeuvre, moved forward to meet it as best he could, and so unwillingly joined battle with Octavian.

32. So the fleets came to grips and the battle began. Each side uttered loud shouts to.the men aboard, urging the troops to summon up their prowess and their fighting spirit, and the men could also hear a babel of orders being shouted at them from those on shore.
The two sides used different tactics. Octavian's fleet, having smaller and faster ships, could advance at speed and ram the enemy, since their gave them protection on all sides. If they sank a vessel, they had achieved their object; if not, they would back water before they could be engaged at close quarters, and either ram the same ship suddenly a second time, or let it go and turn against others. When they had damaged these as much as they could in a short time, they would seek out fresh opponents over and over again, constantly switching their attack, so that their onslaught always came where it was least expected. They feared their adversaries' long-range missiles no less than their superior strength in fighting at close quarters, and so they wasted no time either in the approach or the clash. They would sail up suddenly so as to close with their target before the enemy's archers could hit them, inflict damage or cause enough confusion to escape being grappled, and then quickly back away out of range.

Antony's tactics, on the other hand, were to pour heavy volleys of stones and arrows upon the enemy ships as they approached, and then try to entrap them with iron grapnels. When they could reach their targets, Antony's ships got the upper hand, but if they missed, their own hulls would be pierced by the rams and they would sink, or else, in the attempt to avoid collision, they would lose time and expose themselves to attack by other.ships. Two or three of Octavian's vessels would fan upon one of Antony's, with some inflicting all the damage they could, while the others bore the brunt of the counter-attack.

On the one side the helmsmen and rowers suffered the heaviest casualties, on the other the marines. Octavian's ships resembled cavalry, now launching a charge, and now retreating, since they could attack or draw off as they chose, while Antony's were like heavy infantry, warding off the enemy's efforts to ram them, but also striving to hold them with their grappling-hooks. Each fleet in turn gained the advantage over the other: the one would dart in against the rows of oars which projected from the ships' sides and break the blades, while the other fighting from its higher decks would sink its adversaries with stones and ballistic missiles. At the same time each side had its weaknesses. Antony's ships could do no damage to the enemy as they approached: Octavian's, if they failed to sink a vessel when they had rammed it, would find the odds turned against them once they were grappled.

33. For a long while the struggle was evenly poised and neither side could gain the upper hand anywhere, but the end came in the following way. Cleopatra, whose ship was riding at anchor behind the battle lines, could not endure the long hours of uncertainty while the issue hung in the balance: both as a woman and as an Egyptian she found herself stretched to breaking-point by the agony of the suspense, and the constant and unnerving effort of picturing victory or defeat. Suddenly she made her choice to flee and made the signal for the others, her own subjects. So when her ships immediately hoisted their sails and stood out to sea, a favourable wind having luckily got up, Antony supposed that they were turning tail, not on Cleopatra's orders, but out of fear because they felt themselves to have been defeated, and so he followed them.

At this, dismay and confusion spread to the rest of Antony's men, and they resolved likewise to take whatever means of escape lay open. Some raised their sails, while others threw the turrets and heavy equipment overboard to lighten the vessels and help.them to get away. While they were thus engaged, their opponents again attacked: they had not pursued Cleopatra's fleeing squadron, because they themselves had not taken sails aboard and had put out prepared only for a naval battle. This meant that there were many ships to attack each one of Antony's, both at long range and alongside. The result was that the struggle took many forms on both sides and was carried on with the greatest ferocity. Octavian's soldiers battered the lower parts of the ships from stem to stem, smashed the oars, broke off the rudders, and, climbing on to the decks, grappled with their enemies. They dragged down some, thrust others overboard, and fought hand to hand with others, since they now equalled them in numbers. Antony's men forced their attackers back with boat?hooks, cut them down with axes, hurled down stones and other missiles which had been prepared for this purpose, forced down those who tried to scale the ships' sides, and engaged all who came within reach. A witness of the battle might have compared it, if one can reduce the scale, to the spectacle of a number of walled towns or islands set close together being besieged from the sea. Thus one side strove to clamber up the sides of the ships, as it might be up a cliff or fortress, and brought to bear all the equipment which is needed?for such an assault, while the others struggled to repel them, using all the weapons and tactics which are known to defenders.

Dio, Book 51

5. This was how he dealt with the foregoing and other urgent matters of business. These included granting to those who had received an amnesty permission to live in Italy, a concession which had not previously been made, and also pardoning that part of the populace which had remained behind in Rome for not having come out to greet him. Then on the thirtieth day after his arrival, he again left Italy for Greece. Because it was winter, he had his ships hauled across the isthmus of Corinth, and crossed to Asia so quickly that Antony and Cleopatra only learned of his departure and his return simultaneously.

It seems that after their flight from the sea battle at Actium they had sailed together as far as the Peloponnese. There they dismissed a number of their supporters whom they suspected of disloyalty, but many others deserted them against their wishes. From the Peloponnese Cleopatra then sailed on with all haste to Egypt, for she feared that her people might rise in revolt if they learned of her defeat before she arrived. So in order to make her approach at any rate safe, she had the ships' prows hung with garlands, as though she had actually won a victory, and had songs of triumph chanted to the accompaniment of flute-players.

Once she was safely ashore, she had many of the leading Egyptians executed, on the grounds that they had always been ill-disposed to her and were now exulting in her defeat. Their estates yielded her great wealth, and she also drew upon other sources, both sacred and secular; in the effort to equip her forces and seek fresh allies, she did not exempt even the most holy shrines. She had Artavasdes, the king of Armenia, put to death and his head sent to the king of Media, who she hoped would be influenced by this act to help her cause and Antony's.

Meanwhile Antony had sailed to Cyrenaica to Pinarius, Scarpus and the army which had been assembled there under his command to defend Egypt. However, Scarpus not only refused to receive him, but killed the delegation which Antony had sent ahead to approach him, and even executed some of the soldiers under his own command who had protested against this action. In consequence Antony too returned to Alexandria without having achieved anything.

6. Besides the other preparations which they made for an immediate resumption of the war, Cleopatra enrolled her son Caesarion among the youths who were of age for military service, and Antony did the same for Antyllus, who was his son by his first wife, Fulvia, and was then with him. The object of this action was to put heart into the Egyptians, who could then feel that they had a man to rule over them, and to encourage the rest of their allies to persevere in their resistance, since they would have these boys as their leaders, should any disaster overtake their parents. As far as the boys were concerned, this enrolment was to bring about their destruction. In the event Octavian spared neither, but treated them as grown men, who had been vested with some semblance of authority.

As for Antony and Cleopatra, they continued to make arrangements to carry on the war in Egypt both at sea and on land, and for this purpose they summoned all the neighbouring tribes and rulers who were on friendly terms to come to their help. But they also made alternative plans, should the need arise, either to sail to Spain and stir up rebellion there, using their huge resources of money or other means, or even to shift the theatre of operations to the Persian Gulf Meanwhile they despatched emissaries to Octavian carrying peace proposals for him and bribes of money for his supporters; their purpose here was to conceal the schemes they were preparing for as long as they could, and either outwit Octavian in some way, or actually kill him by treachery. At the same time Cleopatra sent to Octavian a golden sceptre, a golden crown, and the royal throne of Egypt, signifying that through these gifts she was offering him the kingdom as well, and she did this without Antony's knowledge. She hoped that even if Octavian regarded Antony as a mortal enemy, he would take pity on her at least. Octavian accepted her gifts as an auspicious event, but sent no answer to Antony's proposals. As far as Cleopatra was concerned, his official response was a threatening one, including the pronouncement that if she would disband her forces and renounce her throne, he would then consider what should be done with her. But he also sent her a secret message that, if she would kill Antony, he would grant her pardon and leave her kingdom untouched.

7. While these manoeuvres were in progress, the Arabians were persuaded by Quintus Didius, the governor of Syria, to bum the fleet which Cleopatra had assembled in the Red Sea's for the voyage to the Persian Gulf, and all the neighbouring peoples and rulers to whom she and Antony had appealed, refused support. Indeed I am bound to wonder at the fact that while many other associates of theirs, in spite of having received a great number of gifts, now deserted them, yet the men who were being trained for gladiatorial combats, an occupation generally held in the lowest regard, showed the greatest loyalty to them, and fought with the greatest courage. These men were training in Cyzicus' for the triumphal games which Antony and Cleopatra were hoping to hold in celebration of Octavian's defeat, and as soon as they heard what had happened, they started for Egypt to help their rulers. They fought many actions against Amyntas in Galatia, against the sons of Tarcondimorus in Cilicia these rulers had previously been well disposed towards them, but because of the change in circumstances had gone over to Octavian, and later against Quintus Didius, who barred their passage through Syria, but in the end they were unable to break through to Egypt. Yet even when they were encircled on all sides, they would not accept surrender on any terms, although Didius made them a number of offers. Rather than this, they sent for Antony, since they believed that they would fight better even in Syria if he were with them. Only when he neither came himself nor sent any message did they conclude at last that he had been killed, and reluctantly came to terms, on the condition that they should never again have to fight as gladiators. Didius allowed them to live in Daphne, the suburb of Antioch, until their case should be brought to Octavian's notice. These men were later deceived by Messalla and posted to various places on the pretext that they were to be enlisted in the legions; then they were put to death in some convenient manner.

8. When Antony and Cleopatra learned from Octavian's envoys what terms he demanded from them, they sent him further proposals. Cleopatra promised to give him large sums of money, while Antony reminded him of their friendship and of their kinship by marriage. He also sought to defend his association with the Egyptian queen, and reminded Octavian of the various amorous encounters and youthful escapades they had shared in the past. Finally, he handed over to Octavian Publius Turullius, a senator who had been one of the assassins of Julius Caesar and who was then living with Antony as a friend, and he offered to take his own life if Cleopatra might be saved by this action. Octavian had Turullius put to death: it so happened that the man had cut down trees from the grove of Aesculapeius in Cos to build ships for Antony, and since his execution took place in Cos, it was believed that he was paying the penalty to the god as well as to Julius Caesar. But once again Octavian made no reply to Antony.

Antony then made a third approach, sending his son Antyllus with a large sum of gold. Octavian accepted the money, but sent the boy back empty-handed with no message for Antony. But to Cleopatra, just as on the first occasion, so in these second and third exchanges he sent back a combination of threats and promises. He was still afraid of several possible eventualities. Either the two might despair of ever obtaining a pardon from him and so continue to resist. In that case they might either defeat him through their own efforts, or sail to Spain or Gaul. Alternatively they might destroy their wealth, which he was repeatedly informed was enormous. Cleopatra had collected all her treasure in the tomb which she was building in the grounds of the palace, and she threatened to burn it all and herself with it, if she failed to obtain the least of her demands. So Octavian sent one of his freedmen named Thyrsus to charm her with a flow of fine words, and in particular to intimate that he was in love with her. He hoped that by this approach at least, since she believed that she had the power to inspire passion in all mankind, she might dispose of Antony and keep herself and her treasure unharmed. So it turned out in the event.

9. However, before this happened, Antony received news that Cornelius Gaius had taken command of Scarpus's army in Cyrenaica, and had suddenly advanced with these troops to Paraetonium and occupied it. So although he had wished to march to Syria to answer the appeal of the gladiators, he did not do this, but moved against Gallus. He believed that he had a chance of winning over these troops without a struggle, since they had served under him in various campaigns, and still had some regard for him. Otherwise he intended to subdue them by force, since his expedition comprised a strong force of infantry and a powerful fleet. But he found that he could not communicate with them, even though he came close to their ramparts and raised a great shout, for Gallus ordered his trumpeters to sound all their instruments at once, and made it impossible for anyone to hear a word. After this Antony attempted a surprise attack which failed, and later his fleet also suffered a reverse. Gallus arranged for chains to be stretched at night across the mouth of the harbour, but beneath the surface: he appeared to be taking no steps to guard the entrance, but contemptuously allowed the enemy to sail in unmolested. Then, once they were inside, he raised the chains by means of winches, surrounded Antony's ships from all sides from the land, the houses and the sea, burned some, and sank others.

In the meanwhile Octavian captured Pelusium, to appearances by assault, but in reality because it was betrayed by Cleopatra. She had understood that none of their allies now supported them, and that resistance to Octavian was impossible. Above all she had been convinced by what Thyrsus had told her, and believed that Octavian really loved her, first of all because she wished this to happen, and secondly because she had in the same way captivated Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Thus she had come to expect that she would not only be pardoned and retain the kingdom of Egypt, but gain the empire of the Romans as well. So she at once surrendered Pelusium to Octavian, and later, when he advanced upon the capital, she prevented the Alexandrians from making secret sorties; at the same time, so far as could be judged from the outcry she made, she spiritedly urged them to resist.

10. When Antony learned of the loss of Pelusium, he returned from Paractonium and marched to face Octavian before Alexandria. His cavalry fell upon the enemy when they were exhausted from their advance and scored a success. Elated by this and by the fact that he had shot arrows into Octavian's camp which carried leaflets promising the soldiers six thousand sesterces each, he attacked with his infantry and was defeated. Octavian of his own accord read out the leaflets to his soldiers and did his utmost to counter their effect, on the one hand to incite feelings of shame at the treachery they were being invited to commit, and on the other to arouse enthusiasm for his own cause. In the end, the very episode itself stirred his men's emotions: they were angry at the attempt to undermine their loyalty and were anxious to prove that they did not deserve to be regarded as traitors.

After this unexpected defeat on land, Antony fell back on his fleet, and made ready to give battle at sea, or at least to set sail for Spain. But when Cleopatra saw this, she prevailed upon the crews to desert, and herself fled in haste to the mausoleum. She gave out that she feared Octavian, and wished by one means or another to forestall his plans by taking her own life, but in reality she was inviting Antony to enter the place with her. For his part, he half suspected that he was being betrayed, and yet because of his love for her could not believe this, but pitied her even more, it might be said, than himself. Cleopatra, no doubt, understood this very well, and hoped that once he heard that she was dead, he would not survive her, but straightaway follow her example. So she hastened to take refuge in the tomb with a eunuch and two of her women attendants, and from there sent a message to make him believe that she was dead.

He, when he heard it, did not hesitate, but longed to follow and join her in death. First he begged one of his attendants to kill him, but the man drew his sword and turned it on himself. Antony, wishing to match his courage, then stabbed himself and fell face downwards, so that the bystanders believed that he was dead. A great cry of lamentation went up, and when Cleopatra heard this, she peered out over the top of the tomb. Its doors had a locking device, so that, once closed, they could not be opened again, but the upper part of the building near the roof was not yet quite completed. When some of Antony's companions saw her looking out from there, they uttered a shout which even Antony could hear, and learning that Cleopatra was still alive, he struggled to his feet as though he still had strength enough to live. But as he had lost much blood, he knew that his end was near, and implored his companions to carry him to the monument and lift him up by the ropes which had been left hanging to raise the stone blocks. This was done, and Antony died there in Cleopatra's bosom.

11. She now believed that she could place some degree of trust in Octavian and at once sent word to him of what had happened, and yet she could not feel completely confident that no harm would befall her. She therefore remained in seclusion within the building, so that even if there were no other reason for keeping her alive, she could at least trade upon Octavian's fear concerning her treasure to obtain a pardon and keep her throne. Even when she had sunk to such depths of misfortune, she remembered that she was queen and preferred to die bearing the title and majesty of a sovereign rather than live in a private station. At any rate she kept ready fire to destroy her treasure, and asps and other reptiles to end her life; she had experimented before on human beings to discover how these creatures caused death in each case.

Now Octavian was much concerned not only to make himself master of her wealth, but also to capture her alive and lead her in his triumph at Rome. However, as he had given her a pledge of a kind, he did not wish to be seen as having tricked her; rather he wanted to make her appear as his captive, who had been to some extent subdued against her will. He therefore sent Gaius Proculeius, a knight, and Epaphroditus, a freedman, to visit her, and instructed them carefully as to what they should say and do. The two accordingly obtained an audience with Cleopatra, began by discussing a number of reasonable proposals, and then, before anything had been agreed, suddenly laid hands on her. After this they removed from her any means of ending her life, and allowed her to spend some days in the monument where she was engaged in embalming Antony's body. They moved her to the palace, but did not dismiss any of her accustomed retinue or attendants: their object was that she should continue to cherish the hope of obtaining her wishes, and so do nothing to harm herself At any rate, when she sought an audience with Octavian, her request was granted, and to further the deception he promised that he would visit her himself

12. So she prepared a superbly decorated apartment and a richly ornamented couch, dressed herself with studied negligence - indeed her appearance m mourning wonderfully enhanced her beauty - and seated herself on the couch. Beside her she arranged many different portraits and busts of Julius Caesar, and in her bosom she carried all the letters Caesar had sent her. Then as Octavian entered, she sprang to her feet, blushed, and cried, 'Greetings, my lord, for now the gods have given supremacy to you and taken it from me. But now you can see with your own eyes how Caesar looked when he visited me so many times, and you have heard tell of how he honoured me and made me queen of Egypt. You should learn something of me from his own words; these are the letters which he wrote with his own hand: take them and read them.'

So saying, she went on to read many of Caesar's passionate expressions of his feelings for her. At one moment she would weep and kiss the letters, and then she would kneel and bow her head before Caesar's portraits. She kept turning her eyes towards Octavian and lamenting her fate in a plaintive musical tone. Her voice melted as she murmured, 'How can thy letters, Caesar, help me now?' and 'And yet in this man thou livest for me again,' then, 'Would that I had died before thee,' and still again, 'But if I have him, I have thee.'

Such were the subtle tones of speech and changes of expression with which she addressed Octavian, casting sweet looks towards him and murmuring tender words. Octavian understood the passion with which she was speaking and the seductive power of her gestures; however, he acted as if he were unaware of these, looked towards the ground and merely replied, 'Do not distress yourself, lady, take heart, no harm shall come to you.' But her spirits were utterly cast down, because he neither looked at her, nor made any mention of her kingdom, nor uttered so much as a word of love. She threw herself on her knees, burst out weeping, and said, 'I have no desire to live, nor can I live. But this favour I beg of you, in memory of your father, that since the gods gave me to Antony after him, I too may die with Antony. I wish that I had perished at the very instant after Caesar's death. But seeing that it was my fate to suffer that parting from him, send me to Antony. Do not grudge that I should be buried with him: as I die because of him, so may I live with him, even in Hades.'

13. So she spoke, in the hope of arousing his pity, but Octavian made no reply. As he was afraid that she might still end her own life, he urged her yet again to take heart. After this he did not dismiss any of her attendants, but treated her with especial care in his desire that she should make a brilliant spectacle at his triumph. She guessed that this was his plan, and since she felt such a fate to be worse than any number of deaths, she now truly longed to die. She begged Octavian time and again that her life should be ended by one means or another, and of her own accord she thought of many ways to bring this about. Finally, when she could put none of these into effect, she professed to have undergone a change of heart and to place great hopes for the future both in Octavian and in Livia. She said that she would sail to Rome of her own free will, and prepared a number of specially treasured chosen ornaments to take as gifts. In this way she hoped to convince them that she did not intend to die, and hence that she would be less closely guarded and thus enabled to kill herself.

So it came about. As soon as the others, and in particular Epaphroditus, who had been charged with her safe keeping, had become convinced that her state of mind was as she described it and so relaxed their strict surveillance, she prepared to die as painlessly as possible. First she gave a sealed paper to Epaphroditus himself to deliver, in which she begged Octavian to give orders for her to be buried beside Antony. She pretended that the letter concerned some other matter, and using this pretext to get the freedman out of the way, she set about her task. She put on her finest robes, seated herself with majestic grace, took in her hands all the emblems of royalty, and so died.

14. No one knows for certain by what means she perished, for the only marks that were found on her body were tiny pricks on the arm. Some say that she applied to herself an asp, which had been brought to her in a water jar, or perhaps covered beneath some flowers. According to others she had smeared a pin with some poison whose composition rendered it harmless if the contact were external, but which, if even the smallest quantity entered the bloodstream, would quickly prove fatal, although also painless; according to this theory, she had previously worn the pin in her hair as usual, but now made a small scratch in her arm and caused the poison to enter the blood. In this or some similar way she had died, and her two waiting women with her. As for the eunuch, he had of his own accord delivered himself up to the serpents at the time when Cleopatra had been seized by Proculeius, and after being bitten by them, had leaped into a coffin prepared for him.

When Octavian heard of Cleopatra's death, he was astounded, and not only came to see her body, but called in the aid of drugs and of the Psylli in an attempt to revive her. The Psylli are male - there is no such thing as a Psylla - and they are able, if sent for immediately, to suck out the venom of any reptile before the victim dies; moreover they suffer no harm themselves if they are bitten by any such creature. They are propagated from one another, and they test their children either by having them thrown among serpents as soon as they are born, or having their swaddling clothes thrown on the serpents. The reptiles do not harm the children in the first case, and find themselves drugged by the clothing in the second.

So much for this matter of the Psylli. As for Octavian, when he found that it was impossible to revive Cleopatra, he felt both admiration and pity for her, but he was bitterly chagrined on his own account, as if all the glory of his victory had been taken away from him.

15. Antony and Cleopatra were the cause of many misfortunes to the Egyptians and many to the Romans. These were the circumstances in which they fought the war and met their deaths. They were both embalmed in the same manner and buried in the same tomb. The qualities of character which they possessed, and the fortunes which they experienced, may be described as follows. Antony had no superior in recognizing where his duty lay, and yet he committed many senseless acts. There were times when he excelled in courage, and yet he often failed through cowardice: he was capable equally of true greatness of spirit and of extreme baseness. He would plunder the property of others and squander his own. He showed compassion to many without cause, and punished even more without justice. Thus although he rose from most weak beginnings to a position of great power, and from the depths of poverty to the possession of great riches, yet he gained no profit from either situation. Instead, after hoping that he alone would rule the empire of the Romans, he took his own life.

Cleopatra was a woman of insatiable sexuality and insatiable avarice. She often displayed an estimable ambition, but equally often an overweening arrogance. It was by means of the power of love that she acquired the sovereignty of the Egyptians, and when she aspired to obtain dominion over the Romans in the same fashion, she failed in the attempt and lost her kingdom besides. Through her own unaided genius she captivated the two greatest Romans of her time, and because of the third, she destroyed herself.

Such was the nature of these two, and so they ended their lives. Of their children, Antyllus was immediately put to death, although he was betrothed to Octavian's daughter Julia and had taken refuge in his father's shrine, which Cleopatra had built; while Caesarion, who was attempting to escape to Ethiopia, was overtaken on the road and murdered. Cleopatra was married to Juba, the son of Juba. This young man had been brought up in Italy and Octavian rewarded him for his service in various campaigns by giving him his own ancestral kingdom and the hand of the princess. As a further favour to them Octavian spared the lives of Alexander and of Ptolemy, Antony's sons by Cleopatra. For his own nieces, the two daughters whom Octavia had borne to Antony and brought up, he set aside money from Antony's estate. He also commanded Antony's freedmen to hand over immediately to Iullus, Antony's other son by Fulvia, all the possessions they would have been obliged by law to bequeath him after their own death.

16. Of the rest of those who had served Antony's cause up to this time he punished some and pardoned others, in certain instances according to his own inclinations, in others for the sake of his friends. He found that there were many children of various princes and kings who were being kept at Antony's court, some as hostages, but others in a spirit of arrogance. A number of these he restored to their homes, for others he arranged marriages with one another, others, again, he detained. Of all these I shall mention only two. The Median king Artavasdes had taken refuge with Octavian after his defeat, and to him Octavian returned Artavasdes's young daughter, Iotape, of his own accord. But when the Armenian king Artaxes requested that his brothers should be sent back to him, Octavian refused, because this ruler had put to death the Romans who had been left in Armenia.

These captives who had been held in Egypt were dealt with in the way that I have described. At the same time all the Egyptians and the Alexandrians were spared, and there were no executions. The truth was that since the population of Egypt was so large and might in many ways be of great use to the Romans, he decided against doing anything irremediably harmful; to explain his leniency he gave it out that he had been influenced by their god, Serapis, by their founder, Alexander the Great, and thirdly by their compatriot, Areius, whose learning and companionship he had enjoyed. The speech which announced these measures of clemency was addressed to the people in Greek for their better understanding. Later Octavian viewed the body of Alexander, and actually touched it, with the result that a piece of the nose was broken off, so the story goes. But he was unwilling to look at the remains of the Ptolemies, although the Alexandrians were very anxious to show them; Octavian commented, 'I wished to see a king, not corpses.' For this same reason he declined to enter the presence of Apis, remarking that he was accustomed to worship gods, not cattle.

17. After this he imposed a tribute upon Egypt and entrusted it to Cornelius Gallus to govern. Because of the great size of the population both in the cities and in the country, and of the impressionable and fickle nature of the inhabitants, the quantity of the grain supply, and the wealth of the whole country, so far from venturing to entrust the territory to any senator, he would not even allow one to live there, unless he personally gave permission to the individual by name. Nor, on the other hand, did he allow Egyptians to become members of the Roman Senate. He made various arrangements for the government of the other Egyptian cities, but in the case of the Alexandrians he ordered them to conduct their affairs without a city council, so strongly, we must suppose, did he consider them to be addicted to radical change. Most of the features of the administration which Octavian imposed upon them at that date have been strictly preserved even to the present day. However, the Egyptians now have councillors in Alexandria, where they were first introduced under the emperor Severus, and they have also become senators in Rome, where they were first enrolled under Severus's son, Caracalla.

This was how the enslavement of Egypt took place. All those who carried on resistance for a time were subdued, as indeed various divine portents made clear that they would be. For not only did rain fall in places where no drop had ever been seen before, but blood besides, and the flash of weapons appeared from the clouds, as the showers of blood mingled with water poured down. In other places the clash of drums and cymbals and the notes of flutes and trumpets were heard, and a serpent of enormous size suddenly appeared and uttered a hiss of incredible volume. Meanwhile comets were observed in the heavens, the apparitions of dead men were seen, statues frowned, and the bull?god Apis bellowed a groan of lamentation and shed tears.

So much for these events. Great quantities of treasure were found in the palace, for Cleopatra had removed almost all the offerings from even the holiest of the shrines, and in this way the Romans were enabled to amass their spoils without committing any act of sacrilege. Heavy fines were also collected from all who were charged with any misdemeanour. Apart from these, all the rest, even though no specific accusation could be brought against them, were required to surrender two-thirds of their property. These resources were used to provide all the soldiers with the pay that was due to them, and those who were serving with Octavian at that time received a further thousand sesterces on condition that they did not plunder the city. All those who had advanced loans to Octavian's cause were repaid in full, and both the senators and the knights who had taken part in the war received large sums of money. In all the Roman empire gained greatly in wealth and its temples in ornaments.

18. After making the arrangements I have described, Octavian founded a city on the spot where the battle had taken place, and gave it the same name and the same games as the city he had founded previously. He also cleared some of the canals, dug out others afresh, and dealt with other problems which required attention.

Then he travelled through Syria to the province of Asia and spent the winter there, settling the affairs of the subject nations, as well as attending to those of the Parthians. It seems that strife had broken out amongst the latter, and a certain Tiridates had risen against the ruling king, Phraates. Until then, so long as the war with Antony continued even after Actium, Octavian had refrained from siding with either party, although both had sought his support; indeed he had not even sent a reply, except to say that he would give the matter his consideration. His excuse was that he was fully occupied with Egypt, but in fact he hoped that they would wear one another out in fighting. However, now that Antony was dead, and Tiridates had been defeated and had fled to Syria, and Phraates, the victor, had sent a delegation to him, Octavian entered into friendly negotiations with the envoys; at the same time he allowed Tiridates to five in Syria, but gave no promise to help him. He received one of Phraates's sons as an apparent gesture of goodwill, but he took him to Rome and kept him there as a hostage.

19. Meanwhile, and even before this date, the Romans at home had passed many resolutions in honour of Octavian's naval victory. They voted him a triumph for his defeat of Cleopatra, and decreed that an arch adorned with trophies should be erected at Brundisium, and another in the Forum at Rome. They also decreed that the base of the shrine ofjuhus Caesar should be adomed with the rams of the captured warships; that a festival should be held at five yearly intervals in honour of Octavian; that there should be a ceremony of thanksgiving on his birthday and the day of the announcement of his victory; and that when he entered the city of Rome, the Vestal Virgins, the Senate and the people, together with their wives and children, should go out to meet him. I need not record the details of the prayers, the effigies of Octavian, the privilege of the front seat, and all the other distinctions of this kind. At first the Romans not only voted these honours, but also removed or obliterated all the monuments which commemorated Antony, pronounced the day of his birth as accursed, and forbade any of his kinsmen to use the name Marcus. Later, when they learned of Antony's death, it so happened that the news arrived while the younger Cicero, the son of Marcus Tullius, was consul for a part of the year, and some people professed to see the hand of the gods in this coincidence, since it was Antony who had been largely responsible for the elder Cicero's death. They then voted Octavian many more crowns and ceremonies of thanksgiving and granted him another triumph, this time over the Egyptians.

But in neither the earlier nor the later announcements of these commemorations did they mention the name of Antony, nor of the other Romans who had been conquered with him, and so imply that it was proper to celebrate their defeat. They pronounced the day of the capture of Alexandria to be an auspicious day, and ordered that for the future the Alexandrians should take that date as the starting point for their chronology. They also decreed that Octavian should be vested with tribunician power for life, and that he should give his protection to those who appealed to him both within the city limits and beyond, to the distance of one mile, a prerogative which none of the other tribunes possessed. Besides this he was to judge cases of appeal, and in all the courts his vote would be treated in the same way as that of Athena. The priests and priestesses were instructed, when they offered up prayers for the Roman people and the Senate, to pray for him likewise, and both at public and at private banquets everyone was to pour a libation for him.