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4Now Caesar, believing there would be no further danger from the veterans, administered affairs in Greece and took part in the Mysteries of the two goddesses. He then went over into Asia and settled matters there also, 2keeping watch meanwhile upon Antony’s movements; for he had not yet learned anything definite regarding the refuge to which the other had fled, and so he was making preparations to proceed against him in case he should receive any precise information. But meanwhile the veterans made an open demonstration now that he was gone so far away from them, and he began to fear that if they found a leader they would cause some mischief. 3Consequently he assigned to others the task of seeking Antony, and hurried to Italy himself, in the middle of the winter of the year in which he was holding office for the fourth time, along with Marcus Crassus. For Crassus, in spite of having sided with Sextus and with Antony, was then his fellow-consul even though he had not held the praetorship. Caesar, then, came to Brundisium, but proceeded no farther. 4For when the senate ascertained that his ship was nearing Italy, its members went there to meet him, all except the tribunes and two praetors, who remained in Rome in pursuance of a decree; and the equestrian order as well as the greater part of the populace and still others, some as envoys and some of their own accord, came together there in large numbers, 5with the result that there was no further act of rebellion on the part of any one in view of his arrival and of the enthusiasm of the majority. For the veterans, too, had come to Brundisium, some of them induced by fear, some by hopes, and still others in response to a summons; and Caesar gave money to some of them, while to those who had served with him throughout his campaigns he also made an additional assignment of land. 6For by turning out of their homes the communities in Italy which had sided with Antony he was able to grant to his soldiers their cities and their farms. To most of those who were dispossessed he made compensation by permitting them to settle in Dyrrachium, Philippi, and elsewhere, while to the remainder he either granted money for their land or else promised to do so; for though he had acquired great sums by his victory, yet he was spending still more by far. 7For this reason he advertised at auction both his own possessions and those of his companions, in order that any one who desired to purchase any of them, or to take any of them in exchange for something else, might do so. 8And although nothing was purchased, and nothing taken in exchange, either—for who, pray, would ever have dared follow either course?—yet he secured by this means a plausible excuse for delay in carrying out his promise, and later he discharged the debt out of the spoils of Egypt.
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