"But that great divine power or genius, which had watched over him [Caesar] and helped him in his life, even after his death remained active as an avenger of his murder, pursuing and tracking down the murderers over every land and sea until not one of them was left and visiting with retribution all, without exception, who were in any way concerned either with the death itself or with the planning of it." Plutarch, Life, 69.

By all accounts and perhaps most of all by Cicero's comments, Brutus and the conspirators had no strategy to restore the Republic after Caesar's murder. Brutus took clear charge of the tyrannicides and the Republic faction which supported them from the moment Caesar lay dead. His decision, against the urgings of Cassius, not to destroy Marc Antony with Caesar would later be seen as a fatal miscalculation. However, the lack of clear planning of how to deal with the reverberations of the murder led immediately, as Caesar had foreseen, to thirteen years of further civil war; first Marc Antony against the Senate, then Octavius (now, after his adoption by Caesar, known as Caesar) and Lepidus against the Senate, then the Triumvirs against Brutus and Cassius. Finally, after the deaths of the chief conspirators at the Battle of Phillipi in 42 BC, there would be a ten-year covert war between Octavius (soon to be Augustus) and Antony, leading to the destruction of Antony following the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. The great-nephew of Julius Caesar, known to all as the adopted son of a god, would end by ruling supreme.

In the meantime, from all remaining sources, it is clear that a great unease permeated the Roman world. The rise of Caesar to absolute power had been traumatic enough, but now men and women throughout the Empire worried about what would fill the gigantic power vacuum his passing had left. Coincidentally, in 44 BC, Mt. Aetna in Sicilly had erupted, and the ash and gas from its eruption literally darkened the skies for much of that fateful year. In an age when natural phenomena were taken to reveal great truths, men feared the bad omen of the sun itself going into hiding:

Men were frightened, if many were exultant, and they sought to second-guess. It was Brutus' decision that Antony, co-Consul, should not be killed. It was also Brutus' decision that Caesar's more prominent and powerful supporters should not be silenced in a mass coup d'etat. However noble, in terms of practical politics these decisions were disastrous for the future peace of Rome. More particularly, it was Brutus' decision to permit Antony to eulogize Caesar at his funeral, a fatal step which would arouse the people against the murderers. Caesar had steadied the Roman state; now, renewed wars seemed to lie ahead.

OCTAVIAN AND ANTONY

Word of Caesar's murder had flashed to Gaius Octavius, who was in Apollonia awaiting Caesar's arrival. Octavius also learned that he was Caesar's primary heir and adopted son. The intrepid young Caesar hurried to Rome where he found controlled chaos. The Senate, encouraged by Cicero, had met on March 17th and Antony moved (with Cicero's support) not to proceed against the assasins, in return for making no attempt to change Caesar's laws. But the peace was only a temporary break in what was now remorseless hostility between the pro- and anti-Caesarian factions. The Roman people, who had idolized Caesar, were aghast but initially quiet after his murder until Brutus, in a stroke of extreme bad judgment, permitted Antony to speak at Caesar's funeral. By all accounts (including Cicero's), Antony drove the crowd to riot when he read Caesar's generous will, in which every Roman was left a legacy, and spoke of the many wounds Caesar suffered.

Cicero agonized as time passed and no firm steps were taken by the "Liberators" (interestingly, his letters in the months prior to the assassination were repressed). He felt the only viable choice, following the murder, was for the Liberators to immediately convene the Senate, overthrow all Caesar's laws, and organize new elections. Instead, the Liberators lay low. Meanwhile, Antony moved instantly to seize what he could of Caesar's power, getting the Will and Caesar's documents from his widow, Calpurnia, immediately after the murder. As sole surviving Consul, Antony then used what he called Caesar's memoranda of planned future legislation to take charge in the Senate. In leaving Antony alive, Cicero mourned that "It was a fine deed - but half done!" Cicero to Atticus, 114. The assassination was handled "...with the courage of men and the policy of children. Anyone could see that an heir to the throne was left behind. The folly of it! Cicero. 116.

Coins struck by Brutus and Cassius in the East to pay their armies.
Note the patriot's cap of liberty and the twin daggers.

Antony was now joined by Dolabella (planned to be the Co-Consul when Caesar left for Parthia). They impounded Republican funds and manouvered behind the scenes. Almost from the moment the mobs riotously cremated Caesar's body in the Forum on March 18, no one in power in Rome seemed to know how to handle the popular response to the murder, which was to worship Caesar as a god. The Consuls continually had to tear down spontaneous altars made to Caesar in the Forum. In April, young Octavius arrived in Rome and met with Marc Antony. He requested the legacies which his "father" had left him, which Antony claimed had been spent or were otherwise unavailable (Antony had likely taken them). The air was electric with suspicion between Antony and Octavius, whom he viewed as a mere boy who owed everything to Caesar's favor. A supportive Senate provided governorships for both Brutus and Cassius in the turbulent months after the assassination, but then Antony began intriguing to remove or change them: the positions of the chief assasins in Rome had become untenable in view of mob hostility. Meanwhile, young Caesar (known now as Gaius Julius Caesar, but called Octavian by historians to prevent confusion) began quietly raising his own legions. He turned 19 in September, and was - and would continue to be - under-estimated by almost all the powers that remained in Rome.