I only wish that you could see into my heart, how I fear that young man [Octavianus]. Marcus Brutus, letter to Cicero, May 15, 43 BC

April, 44 BC. Arriving with a small entourage - probably including his lifelong friends, Agrippa and Maecenas - Gaius Octavius landed quietly somewhere south of the great port of Brundisium. He had no way of knowing, since embarking from Apollonia, about the current political situation in Rome, or whether the legions stationed there were hostile to his family. It was more than possible that a purge of all of Caesar's supporters was under way following his assassination three weeks before. Reassured, Octavius proceeded cautiously to the port city, where he found letters from his mother, Atia, and Philippus, his stepfather. Apparently a fragile calm held - the city was in the uneasy grip of Mark Antony who had reconciled with the "liberators" (as Caesar's assassins styled themselves). Octavius also learned formally of his inheritance and adoption by the terms of Caesar's will, which had been broadcast by Marc Antony. By law, the adopted son of Caesar, Gaius Octavius, would now legally be known as Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. It is as Octavian that he is known in this period - the name symbolizing his adoption of Caesar's mantle, fortune and legions - and Caesar's enemies. Cicero, who had prudently quit Rome for the country soon after the Ides of March, wrote Atticus hungrily for news, asking whether Octavius had arrived in Brundisium and if the soldiers there had rallied to him as part of a coup d'etat. Other politicians, warily, waited to see what Caesar's heir would do.

Son of Caesar?

It is plausible to think that, in the whirlwind of his dash to Italy after news arrived of Caesar's murder, Octavian had no time to deeply ponder his future, yet in the next month he implacably set his future course. His stepfather, Phillipus, advised him not to accept Caesar's legacy or its inevitable dangers. Yet Octavian appears to have determined quickly that he would do just that - take the money and the power, the name and the danger. He wrote to Phillipus confirming this and then traveled to meet with his family at their country estate. By April 18, he was in Naples to meet with Balbus, one of Caesar's closest advisors and financiers; Balbus later told Cicero that the decision to accept the inheritance was firmly set even then, just a month after Caesar's death.

Did Octavian understand the full implications of Caesar's inheritance? Certainly his young character has come down to us described as words such as disciplined, intelligent, cautious, manipulative. He showed a lifelong ability to analyze situations based on facts and on a clear understanding of how human nature operated. One of his favorite later expressions was "make haste - slowly." Having seen his great-uncle in operation for many months prior to his death, he must surely have seen Caesar's blatant uses of power, his indifference to preserving the self-respect of 'his' Senate, his dictates to proud and unruly men. What conclusions Octavian drew about Caesar's murder seem clear from Octavian's future course - to obtain power by doing whatever was necessary; to seem not to want it, while continually increasing it; to preserve the illusions of the old Republican guard while accreting all genuine influence to himself. Whatever the reality, the facade must be preserved and the illusion maintained. Whether there was genuine grief and affection for his murdered relative, or simply the calm calculation of odds, Octavian emerged within days of his arrival in Italy with a prescient understanding of what his future required. His greatest advantages comprised his wealth (whether because Balbus and other pro-Caesarians helped finance him, because of Caesar's inheritance, or because he used funds meant for the Parthian campaign being kept in Brundisium, can never be known). He had his elevation as Caesar's heir. The legions, outraged by the loss of their beloved commander, would open their arms to his adopted son. Thanks to his time with Caesar, he knew some of the principal players on this new stage - Antony, Brutus, Cicero, Decimus Brutus. But he was only 18 and he was traversing a precipice. His greatest trick was to seem what he was not - a malleable, charming boy who needed advice and protection.

Cicero was one of the first to be taken in by this facade. Writing Atticus from his villa near Puteoli (close to Phillipus' country house), he noted that Octavian had paid him a courtesy call, as a young Roman to a great elder statesman. He wrote Atticus that "the boy" was "respectful and friendly." Octavian sought Cicero's guidance and obviously charmed his vanity. Cicero, who had largely withdrawn from politics during Caesar's rule, was back at the center of events and intriguing, as always, to advance the political interests of his friends. Horrified that Brutus and Cassius had not also murdered Marc Antony (correctly, Cicero saw that Antony would merely extend Caesar's rule without Caesar's redeeming qualities), Cicero supported the 'liberators' and sought to give them as much power and honor in the new political situation as popular displeasure permitted. He instantly saw Octavian as a political tool in his contest against Antony, although his patronizing comments suggest he never for one moment saw the steel beneath the handsome mask. One thing upon which all biographers agree - Octavian intended revenge for Caesar's murder and everyone who had been in any way involved, would pay. Cicero appeared unaware of this deep psychological conviction as he spoke of honors to the 'liberators' who killed Caesar. Having left the old man with the idea he could be useful, Octavian traveled to Rome to confront Antony at the center of power.

Antony, Rome's greatest warrior after Caesar, had been politically deft in the critical days following the Ides of March. While making it clear that he abominated the murder and the breaking of oaths it entailed, he quickly moved to accommodate the assassins by permitting them to retain their positions and property, while smoothly convincing the Senate that Caesar's laws and dictates should be permitted to stand. He noted dryly that all of them had benefited from Caesar's rule, and that if his laws were declared invalid, they would all lose their positions. The Senate agreed. Now Antony, as the surviving Consul, moved quickly to implement not only Caesar's plans but any plans of his own that he could portray as Caesar's intention. Cornelius Dolabella, who had been chosen by Caesar to be Consul with Antony, took office. No legal proceedings followed against Caesar's murderers. Antony immediately confiscated not only all Caesar's papers and his will, but also his vast funds both personal and public. Antony was in the full flush of mature power and whatever his personal feelings at not having been left Caesar's fortune (many thought he expected to be Caesar's heir), he obviously planned to carry on as if he were. Then appears the quiet, frail, epicene boy he'd seen with Caesar in Spain, firmly demanding not only all Caesar's money but his immediate legal adoption as Caesar's son.

All sources agree that Antony kept Octavian and his party of friends waiting at the gate; that Octavian asked for the inheritance so that he could pay out (as Caesar had promised a donative to all Romans upon his death) the legacies Caesar required. Appian states that Octavian not only asked for Caesar's war chest or the ability to borrow against it, which must have appeared to Antony as breathtaking insolence, but reproached Antony bitterly for coming to an accommodation with Caesar's assassins in his public acts.

In short, Antony told Octavian that Caesar's vast fortune did not exist, that there were many others to dispute Octavian's claims, and that he would do nothing to assist Octavian in obtaining either the money or position he felt Caesar had left him. Caesar's inheritance fell into a muddle of lawsuits, in which many claimed portions of it as having been acquired illegally, or by proscription. Antony and Dolabella kept the pressure on, and judgment after judgment began going against Octavian until finally he and other co-heirs protested, but without effect. At the same time, Antony blocked all efforts to legally effect Octavian's adoption. It was summer in Rome; Brutus, who had left the city but still served as urban praetor, was required to celebrate the Ludi Apollinares from July 7 to July 13; rumors suggested he would attempt to justify his actions with spectacular games that would reinstate him with the Roman people. Octavian determined to sell anything he owned, whether from Caesar, his own property, that of his family, and even Caesar's other co-heirs, to raise enough money to fund his own games in Caesar's honor. When Rome say him knocking down all his property in order to pay Caesar's legacies to fellow Romans, a wave of sympathy arose for the boy; the gifts now, as Appian notes, seemed to come from Octavian, rather than Caesar.

By all accounts, Brutus' games were a disaster; highly intellectual Greek plays were staged in which tyrants were destroyed, but only the intelligentsia attended. The people remained unmoved. There would be no popular recall for either Brutus or Cassius. At the same time, Octavian set himself dutifully to celebrate one of the last honors granted Caesar; that he would have his own games late in July, month of his birth. With the help of Caesar's loyal friend, Gaius Matius, the Ludi Victoriae Caesaris were celebrated in the last ten days of July. Venus Genetrix, goddess of military victory and allegedly Caesar's ancestor, was honored in these spectacular games, but something only fate itself could stage-manage made these games unlike any other; from the first night of the games in Caesar's honor, a great comet appeared in the Roman sky, and nightly it rose throughout the festival, disappearing on its final day. This sidus Iulium (literally, the 'star of Julius signifying that Caesar had become a god and ascended to heaven) was a supernatural sign that the superstitious Romans could not ignore. If the heavens themselves blazed forth Caesar's divinity, what, then, of his murderers - what, then, of his chosen son? It appears even Octavian was superstitious enough to believe in his (literal) star - from then on, coins showed the divine Julius with a glowing star, highlighting his divinity, and from now on styled himself divi filius - son of a god.

Son of a God

The Roman Forum, early Empire.

By late summer, there were three parties struggling for dominance. Antony found increasing opposition to his own self-aggrandizing plans, Octavian was now known by all as Caesar's heir, struggling to pay legacies in spite of Antony's spite. The assassins were dispersed and the Senate hated Antony - but dared not alienate him or young Caesar. Octavian himself had been accepting the loyal support of some of Caesar's former legions and now had his own troops about him - and Antony had access to all the legions in Italy. Throughout that confusing summer and fall, the legions loyal to either Antony or Octavian sought reconciliation between the two men - and Octavian allowed himself to support Antony when he went directly to the people to give himself command of Cisalpine Gaul, rather than his intended province of Macedonia. Antony wanted Gaul - and Decimus Brutus, Caesar's beloved lieutenant and his assassin, currently had control of that province. It is likely that Octavian wanted to punish Decimus Brutus more than he cared to help Antony. Cicero and the Senate struggled, knowing that if Caesar's lieutenant and Caesar's heir found common cause, whatever had been gained by Caesar's death would be irrevocably lost. Meanwhile, sources suggest that undercover hostility continued between Antony and Octavian; at one point, Antony even declared that Octavian had tried to have him assassinated. When Antony hurried to Brundisium to meet four legions returning to help him wrest Cisalpine Gaul from Decimus Brutus, he claimed to find pro-Caesarian agitators among 'his' legions. Meanwhile, Octavian stepped up the pace of recruiting his own 'volunteer' legions, particularly from Caesar's old areas around Capua where his veterans had been settled.

By November, Octavian's personal army numbered perhaps 10,000 and Antony was determined to have him declared hostis - an enemy of the state. Octavian made one of his few well-documented errors in judgment. To prevent Antony's actions against him, he brought about 3,000 armed men into Rome itself and camped there, trying to get Cicero to legitimize him as a pro-Senatorial force against Antony. This was not only strictly illegal - no general could bring armed troops into the city - but brought up all the worst parallels with earlier tyrants, whether Caesar or Sulla. And as a gamble, it misfired. Cicero would not commit himself, although with Octavian's flattering support he did return to Rome and took the lead of the anti-Antony forces in the Senate. While Octavian waited uncertainly near Rome, Antony returned to the Senate for a meeting November 24, in which Octavian would be outlawed - but the move was never made. Partly due to Antony's harsh disciplining of his disloyal legions, two of them (the legio Martia and the legio Quarta) rebelled and went over to Octavian's forces. Losing his military support, Antony dropped all plans to tangle with Octavian and made plans to move on Decimus Brutus in Cisalpine Gaul with those legions who remained loyal to him. Octavian could have been destroyed in November, but Caesar's own luck saved him - although it is almost certain that he had been cooly working on subverting Antony's legions from the start.

Octavianus: Part 2

SOURCES: Reproduction of Rome from Classical Civilization: Introduction to the Ancient World.