The life of Augustus (Part 2 of 6)- Revenge

When we last left off, Octavian had become consul of the Roman Republic and Antony was fleeing into Gaul with a handful of men closely pursued by Brutus and his small army. I want to take a moment to talk about what a consul is to catch everyone up. A consul was sort of like a president and a king combined. It was the highest office in the Roman Republic and consuls were responsible for leading the senate, leading the Roman military, and also were among the most powerful of all the religious officials in Rome. In August of 43 BC, at only the age of 19, Octavian was made consul of Rome, becoming the youngest consul in Roman history. That same month, his mother Attia died, leaving Octavian heartbroken. There was no time to mourn though, as he examined the political situation he found that his position was not as secure as it might seem. Let's start by laying out the position Octavian found himself in. First, Mark Antony had made it to Gaul where he linked up with the 17 legions in the area. These men had been loyal to Caesar and were now loyal to Mark Antony. Octavian himself only had eight legions in Italy and so was severely outnumbered. Antony was not in a particularly strong position though. Despite his large army, feeding, equipping, and paying such a large army was quite expensive and this army was reliant on supplies transferred from Rome itself. Octavian could cut off supplies and starve Antony's army into making a foolish decision. As dangerous as Antony was, Octavian had a bigger threat looming on the horizon. Brutus and Cassius, two of the leading conspirators in the assassination of Julius Caesar, had been driven out of the city by Mark Antony in 44 BC. While in the east, they had amassed an army of 17 legions and were marching for Rome to liberate it from Octavian. So as 43 BC came to a close, Octavian's position was quite dangerous. One enemy to the north, one enemy to the east, both of whom outnumbered him significantly. Octavian had a plan though. Octavian always had a plan. As soon as he had defeated Antony in the battle of Mutina, he had sent diplomats to discuss terms with Antony. He had wanted to unite the pro-Caesar faction under one banner so that pro-Caesar politicians could consolidate power. Antony, realizing that Brutus and Cassius, who styled themselves liberators, would come for him after they defeated Octavian, agreed to Octavian's terms and allied himself with the young man. In November of 43 BC, Octavian, Antony, and one of Caesar's old lieutenants Lepidus met up and formed what we call the Second Triumvirate, a political alliance between Rome's three most powerful politicians. Antony brought his 17 legions down to Italy, and additional legions were risen from all over the empire. Now with a grand total of 28 legions, the Triumvirate had more than enough men to defeat Brutus and Cassius. But before they could do that, they had two other significant problems facing them. First, they needed a ton of money to pay for this new 140,000 man army. They needed food, equipment, and ships. Without these funds, their men may defect and their army would be ineffective at best. Second, both Octavian and Antony had made enemies in Rome. Many enemies. Many of the most powerful senators in Rome had arrayed themselves against the Triumvirates, and these men would almost certainly side with Brutus and Cassius if the chance came. So the Triumvirs would kill two birds with one stone. Proscriptions were issued by the Triumvirs to deal with these problems. A proscription is basically a list of enemies of the Republic whose lives and property were now forfeit. Instituted by Sulla some five decades ago, the act of proscribing was deeply unpopular and tyrannical. Nevertheless, 2,300 names were added to this list, including 300 senators and 2,000 other rich Romans. There is some debate about Octavian's involvement in this decree. Some historians say he argued against or tried to limit the number of people on the list. Others say he's equally guilty of this horrific act. Personally, I think Octavian was certainly okay with the proscriptions and even a driving force behind the act. He knew what the senators were capable of, and the fact that he would so willingly give up his allies like Cicero seems to prove this point. This is partly why Octavian was able to accomplish what no man before him had done. He was not one to resort to brutality unless absolutely necessary, but when it was necessary, he could be as violent or monstrous as any other Roman in history. When a person was proscribed, they were killed and then their land and possessions were seized and given over to the Triumvirate. The hope was that the sale of these lands and possessions would cover the costs of this new mass farming. Unfortunately though, the sudden influx of new property to the market caused the Roman housing market to crash and they didn't raise nearly enough money. In desperation, they added more names to the list, but when this didn't work, the Triumvirate resorted to taxing the people of Italy. The Italians had never been taxed before and this was a massively unpopular move, even more unpopular than the proscriptions, but with 28 legions hanging around, they had the muscle to enforce this and they got the funds they needed. Cash in hand, the Triumvirs decided to take their army and go and meet Brutus and Cassius' army in the field away from Italy. Before setting sail, Octavian used his newfound powers to deify his adoptive father Caesar and then added Divi Filius or Divine Son to his increasingly long name. Octavian, Agrippa, and Antony would set sail in 42 BC, leaving Lepidus behind in Rome with a few legions to maintain the political position of the Triumvirs. By September 42 BC, the Triumvir army, consisting of 19 legions with another 6 legions in the rear, had closed in on the liberator army of Cassius and Brutus near the small town of Philippi in Greece. Once again though, Octavian fell ill and was forced to retire while Antony began to set the coming battle in motion. Stop me if this sounds familiar. The liberators were not stupid, and Cassius in particular was an extremely experienced general. They came into this battle with a fairly well set out plan. The first part of the plan involved placing their large army in a great defensive position on top of a large mountainous hill with a swamp protecting the left flank. Brutus would command the right flank, and Cassius would command the larger left flank. The liberators had one clear advantage, and that was their navy. Back in Caesar's civil war, the entire Roman navy had fought against Caesar. After the civil war ended, the navy never really gave up and they now threw their lot in with the liberators. With the Triumvir army in sight, the liberator navy imposed a blockade on the area, depriving the triumvirs of their supplies and reinforcements. The liberator plan was to drag the battle out as long as possible and starve the triumvir forces into surrender. Cut off from their supply chain and reinforcements, the 19 legions Antony had with him would have to do. Surveying the field, the liberators had built a large wall along their right flank in the front of their army. However, believing the swamp on their left impassable, they failed to construct fortifications or post guards along their left flank. Antony sought to gain the upper hand and decided that his best bet was to go through this swamp. Secretly, he sent engineers to the swamp and began construction on a causeway that would allow him to move troops through the area. Around this time, a sick Octavian returned to camp with Agrippa at his side. Octavian was not going to allow Antony to win all the glory alone. Although Antony retained overall command, he was not running things alone anymore. Shortly after the causeway had begun construction, the liberators figured out what was going on and assaulted the engineers. Realizing what was happening, Cassius hastily threw together a defensive wall along the swamp to protect his flank. Back in the triumvirate camp, supplies were quickly running out and Antony knew he had to make a move. He took almost all of the 19 legions and ordered an all-out assault along Cassius' left flank. He planned to penetrate right where the swamp and the hill met, hoping to push the liberator forces back off their hill. The fighting was extremely violent and fierce and for hours the two armies clashed with thousands dying. Antony's veteran legions proved their worth once again and successfully took the fortifications and began to push the liberators off the hill. Realizing the position was lost, Cassius would pull back with a few men and shortly thereafter commit suicide. While all of this was happening, Brutus had realized the triumvirate camp was only weakly guarded by Octavian and a few legions. He took his legions and advanced, successfully routing Octavian and taking the triumvirate camp. At the end of the day, the two armies had basically just swapped camps with thousands dead to show for it. Brutus would decide to continue with the original plan and try to starve out the triumvirs. Antony would respond by building a wall that extended out from his left flank. He hoped to surround the liberators with the wall and starve them out in As the wall grew in size, Brutus had to extend his right flank, matching the wall but also thinning it in the process. Brutus was losing control of his army. Everyone knew Cassius was the better general and the soldiers were not all right with waiting around. In addition, his eastern mercenaries began to abandon the army en masse and this forced Brutus to try and fight it out. He would order an all-out assault and advance against Antony's army. The resulting battle would be one of the most violent clashes in Roman history. Accounts from the time say that the men did not even throw their missiles but instead just tried to ravage one another, desperately trying to break their enemy's line. On Brutus's left flank, he was able to begin to turn the triumvir forces led by Octavian but on Brutus's thin left flank, Antony got the upper hand and routed the liberator legions. With Antony in command of the field, Brutus's army fell apart. He was able to rally four legions and hastily retreat from the field. After reflecting that evening and realizing all was lost, Brutus bid his men good day and committed suicide, permanently ending liberator resistance to the triumvirate. With the liberators now totally defeated, the triumvir began to divide up the The strongest triumvir at this time was by far Mark Antony who had won the battle nearly single-handedly. Antony would take the rich eastern provinces Gaul, Greece, and Illyria where he planned to carry out Caesar's planned invasion of Parthia. Octavian would take Africa and Rome and Lepidus would get Spain. Rome technically was under the control of all three triumvirs but with Antony at the east and Lepidus in Spain, it would be under Octavian's control. While Lepidus enjoyed the gold mines of Spain and Antony led troops in his glorious conquest of Parthia, Octavian would be left with a mess in Rome. Once again, he had two massive problems facing him. First, the liberator fleet hadn't gone away. It was under the control of Pompey's son, Sextus Pompey. They took control of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica and began a blockade of Rome, cutting off the grain supply and causing a famine. Second, many of the 28 legions the triumvirs had were approaching retirement and were to be rewarded with lands and money for their victory. Octavian was left to deal with this alone. The problem was the victory had brought in no new land and Octavian had tens of thousands of veterans to settle. With no money and no land, this was not going to work out well. And it won't. In the next episode, we will see exactly how screwed Octavian is and we will witness the beginning of the breakdown of the second triumvirate. Thanks for watching. See you next time.