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This action of theirs was counterbalanced by the arrival of others who fled from Antony in turn to Caesar, among them being Titius and Plancus, though they had been honoured by Antony among the foremost and knew all his secrets.

For after the consuls had taken the step described and Caesar, moreover, in their absence had convened the senate and had read and said all that he wished, and after Antony, hearing of these things, had assembled a kind of senate from among those who were with him, and after considerable talk on both sides of the question had taken up the war and renounced his connection with Octavia as his wife, then it was that Titius and Plancus, because of some friction with him or because of anger against Cleopatra, deserted him.

And Caesar was very glad to receive them and learned from them all about Antony’s affairs, what he was doing, what he had in mind to do, what was written in his will, and the name of the man who had the will; for these two men had attached their seals to it.

for Antony had borne witness to Caesarion that he was truly sprung from Caesar, had given some enormous presents to his children by the Egyptian queen, who were being reared by him, and had ordered that his body be buried in Alexandria by her side.

And they became so angry at this that all, not only Antony’s enemies or those who were not siding with either man, but even his most intimate friends, censured him severely; for in their consternation at what was read and in their eagerness to counteract Caesar’s suspicion of them, they spoke in the same way as the rest.

and went to the temple of Bellona, where they performed through Caesar as fetialis all the rites preliminary to war in the customary fashion. These proceedings were nominally directed against Cleopatra, but really against Antony.

This was the reason they voted for war against Cleopatra, but they made no such declaration against Antony, forsooth, knowing full well that he would become an enemy in any event, since he certainly was not going to prove false to her and espouse Caesar’s cause; and they wished to have this additional reproach to put upon him, that he had voluntarily taken up war on the side of the Egyptian woman against his native country, though no ill-treatment had been accorded him personally by the people at home.

for all these nations coöperated with one side or the other in the war: Caesar had, in the first place, Italy (he had even attached to his cause all those who had been placed in colonies by Antony, partly by frightening them, since they were few in number, and partly by conferring benefits upon them; for example, among his other acts, he personally gave a new charter to the colonists who had settled in Bononia, so that the impression might prevail that the colony had been sent out by him),

indeed, he proceeded to send gold in every direction, and particularly to Italy in general and especially to Rome, and thus tried to shake the allegiance of each individual element and to tempt them of to his side. For this reason Caesar on his part kept a more vigilant watch over everything else, and made donations of money to his soldiers.

All alike were excited over these events, yet in that year nothing further took place. For Caesar, on his part, was busy settling matters in Italy, especially when he discovered the presence of money sent by Antony, and so could not go to the front before winter;

and as for Antony, although he set out with the intention of carrying the war into Italy before they should suspect his movements, yet when he came to Corcyra and ascertained that the advance guard of ships sent to reconnoitre his position was lying off the Ceraunian mountains, he suspected that Caesar himself with all his fleet had arrived, and hence proceeded no farther.

Meanwhile men were going over voluntarily from each party to the other side, senators as well as others, and Caesar caught a spy, Lucius Messius; but he released him, in spite of his being one of the men who had previously been captured at Perusia, after having first showed him his entire force.

And Caesar sent Antony a letter, bidding him either withdraw from the sea a day’s journey on horseback and permit him to land in security, on condition that they should join battle within five days, or else cross over to Italy himself on the same understanding.

About this time a madman rushed into the theatre at one of the festivals and seized the crown of the former Caesar and put it on, whereupon he was torn to pieces by the bystanders. A wolf was caught as it was running into the temple of Fortune and killed,

Although such omens had appeared to them, the two leaders neither were dismayed nor relaxed their preparations for war, but spent the winter in spying upon and annoying each other. For Caesar had set sail from Brundisium and had proceeded as far as Corcyra, intending to attack while off their guard the enemy forces lying off Actium, but he encountered a storm and received damage which caused him to withdraw.