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In addition to these events at that time, the consuls celebrated the festival held in honour of Venus Genetrix. During the Feriae mere boys who were sons of knights, instead of senators, served as prefects of the city on appointment by Caesar.

These men, now, though furthering their ambitions by spending their private funds, still acted with retiring modesty and with moderation; but others who were holding even a most insignificant office bargained to get triumphs voted in their own honour, some using the influence of Antony and some that of Caesar, and on this pretext exacted large amounts of gold from foreign states to provide the crowns.

Caesar became consul for the second time, with Lucius Tullus as his colleague, but resigned on the very first day, as Antony had done, and with the sanction of the senate he introduced some persons from the populace into the rank of patricians.

When a certain Lucius Asellius, who was praetor, wished on account of a long sickness to lay down his office, he appointed his son in his stead; and when a second praetor died on the last day of his term, Caesar chose another for the remaining hours. At the death of Bocchus he gave his kingdom to no one else, but enrolled it among the Roman provinces.

Antony meantime had marched as far as the Araxes, ostensibly to conduct a campaign against the Parthians, but was satisfied to arrange terms with the Median king. They made a covenant to serve each other as allies, the one against the Parthians and the other against Caesar,

After this Antony bestowed upon Polemon, as I have stated, Lesser Armenia, made Lucius Flavius consul and likewise removed him (for he was there with him), and set out for Ionia and Greece to wage war against Caesar.

The Roman people had been robbed of their democratic form of government, but had not become a monarchy in the strict sense of the term; Antony and Caesar still controlled affairs on an equal footing, having divided by lot most of the functions of government between them, and though nominally they considered all the rest as belonging to them in common, in reality they were trying to appropriate it to themselves, according as either of them was able to seize any advantage over the other.

But afterwards, when Sextus had now perished, the Armenian king had been captured, the forces that had warred upon Caesar were quiet, and the Parthians were stirring up no trouble, these two turned openly against each other and the people were actually reduced to slavery. The causes for the war and the pretexts they had for it were as follows.

Antony charged Caesar with having removed Lepidus from his office, and with having taken possession of his territory and of the troops of both him and Sextus, which ought to have been their common property; and he demanded the half of these as well as the half of the soldiers that had been levied in the parts of Italy which belonged to both of them.

Caesar’s charge against Antony was that he was holding Egypt and other countries without having drawn them by lot, had killed Sextus (whom he himself had willingly spared, he said), and by deceiving, arresting, and putting in chains the Armenian king had caused much ill repute to attach to the Roman people.

He, too, demanded half of the spoils, and above all he reproached him with Cleopatra and the children of hers which Antony had acknowledged as his own, the gifts bestowed upon them, and particularly because he was calling the boy Caesarion and was bringing him into the family of Caesar.

These were the charges they made against each other and were in a way their justification of their conduct, and they communicated them to each other partly by private letters and partly by public speeches on the part of Caesar and public messages on the part of Antony. On this pretext also they were constantly sending envoys back and forth, wishing to appear as far as possible justified in the complaints they made and at the same time to reconnoitre each other’s position.

Domitius did not openly attempt any revolutionary measures, since he had experienced many disasters. Sosius, however, had had no experience with misfortunes, and so on the very first day of the year he said much in praise of Antony and inveighed much against Caesar. Indeed, he would have introduced measures immediately against the latter, had not Nonius Balbus, a tribune, prevented it.

Caesar, it seems, had suspected what he was going to do and wished neither to ignore it nor by offering opposition to appear to be beginning the war; hence he did not enter the senate at this time nor even live in the city at all, but invented some excuse which kept him out of town, not only for the reasons given, but also in order that he might deliberate at his leisure according to the reports brought to him and then act, after mature reflection, as necessity dictated.

And when Caesar learned this he declared that he had sent them away voluntarily, hoping thus that it might not be thought that they had abandoned him because of some wrong-doing on his part, and added that he granted the rest who so wished permission to depart unmolested to Antony.