586 WIVES OF THE C.ESARS. 



Mark Antony were not so easy of attainment as his presumption led 

 him to expect. The senate, suspicious of his purpose, and alarmed 

 by Cicero's predictions, were fearful of committing to his charge a 

 government of such importance ; yet that which was unsuccessfully 

 and arrogantly sought by Antony, was gained in his behalf by the 

 address and influence of young Octavius. This mark of Caesar's 

 friendship was, however, ill-requited. Jealous of the preference given 

 to Octavius in the will of the dictator, Antony pursued his youthful 

 partisan with accusation and invective ;* and among the many crimes 

 imputed to him, he alleged the project of his own assassination. 

 Octavius, on the evidence of such a disposition, perceived an enemy 

 in Antony, with whom he prudently yet boldly broke off all con- 

 nexion ; and as he regarded with an eye of apprehension any circum- 

 stance that swelled the power of so insidious an adversary, he re- 

 solved upon the ruin of his party. Acting with decisive promptitude, 

 he communicated instantly with Brutus, who had not as yet vacated 

 his authority ; he solicited his friendship, and urgently besought him 

 to retain by force the power, which he himself had influenced the 

 senate to confer on Antony. That Brutus might not hesitate to follow 

 his advice, or acquiesce in his desires, Octavius sent him a supply of 

 ammunition, men, and money, to sustain the siege of Mutina, invested 

 by the army of the consul. The fasces shortly passed to Kirtius 

 Aulus and Vibius Pansa ; with the memorable consulate of whom the 

 real dignity and splendour of the office is said to have expired. The 

 senate, discontented and alarmed at the ambitious character and con- 

 duct of their predecessors, Antony and Dolabella, deliberated on the 

 steps to be pursued in prevention of the views imputed to them. 

 Cicero, whose authority and reputation in the senate were unrivalled, 

 was the enemy of Antony; his animosity was stimulated by the arts 

 of Caesar, who emboldened him as well by the profession of his friend- 

 ship and the promise of assistance, should Antony's resentments wear 

 a violent complexion. Cicero, thus assured, declaimed against his 

 enemy with more than usual eloquence and force ; -j~ and a senatorial 



* Plutarch in vita Anton. 



f Cicero, on his defence of Milo, was deeply agitated by the armed array of 

 Pompey. His second philippic against Antony, a mass of accusation and in- 

 vective, was delivered in the temple of Concord, where the Ithyrsean guards 

 were seen dispersed among the members of the senate. Cicero, in this oration, 

 admits that Antony had spared his life, when he was found as one of Pompey'a 

 partisans at Brundusium, subsequently to the battle of Pharsalia. He requites 

 the mercy of Mark Antony with insolent ingratitude : u quandoquidem majus 

 (beneficium) accipi a latrone nullum potuit." He afterwards reviles him as 

 the most iniquitous of gladiators : " gladiatore nequissimo ;" as a practised 

 dealer in the arts of forgerv "cujus domus, qusestuosissima est falsorum com- 

 mentariorum et chirographorum officina ; agrorum, oppidorum, immunitatum, 

 vectigalium, flagitiosissimse nuridinae ;" as a sacrilegious violator " qui maximo 

 te sere alieno, ad sedem opis liberasti." The oration is replete with the alternate 

 bitterness and irony of hatred and contempt : " Sed stuporem hominus, vel 

 dicam pecudis attendite ;" and, alluding to the marriage of Antony with Hippia, 

 the player, u aliquid enim salis ab uxore mima trahere potuisti." He reproaches 

 Fulvia, the wife of Antony, with the fate of Clodius and Curio, her former hus- 



bands : " Cujus (Clodii) quidem tibi faturn, sicut Caio Curioni manet ; quoniam 

 id (Fulvia) domi iuse est, quod fuit illorum 



utrique fatale," He denounces 



