106 L. ANTOJNins AND FULVIA.
had never thought of opposing the Julian party, were confis-
cated like those which had openly espoused the cause of
Pompey. Endless tumults and confusion reigned throughout
Italy. Among those who were expelled from their homes,
there were unquestionably many of the sons of the old Sul-
Ianian colonists, who were ready to take up arms, and looked
around to see who would come forward as their leader. Two
men responded to the call, and declared for the dispossessed
malcontents. One of them was L. Antonius, consul of the
year (711), and brother of Antony the triumvir, who sought an
opportunity of overthrowing the rival of his brother, and was
instigated in particular by Fulvia, Antony’s wife. Fulvia was
a true Megaera, bloodthirsty and of violent passions. She had
formerly been licentious in her conduct; but since her marriage
with Antony she clung to him with all the passion of love.12
She had been a deadly enemy of Cicero, whose head she had
caused to be brought to her from the rostra, and had feasted
her eyes upon his dead features. Her jealousy was now excited
by her husband’s amour with Cleopatra, and she meditated
upon creating a commotion which might induce Antony to
return to Italy. Her motive was a very natural one, and she
tried to excite a civil war. She accordingly went to Praeneste
and there proclaimed the protection of the oppressed. L. An-
tonius joined her at Praeneste, and Tiberius Nero, the husband
of Livia, came forward in Campania on the same side, though
it would seem, from no other motive than humanity. Octavian
on this occasion acted with skill and prudence, the merit of
which however belongs to Agrippa, who was a wise man.
Octavian was naturally a coward, but events had matured him.
He applied to his veterans, whose interest it was to support
him. The generals of the Antonian party who were in Italy
were deficient in resolution. Asinius Pollio, who was in his
province of Gaul and Illyricum, would not fight for either
party, although he belonged to that of Antony; and Octavian
thus succeeded in isolating L. Antonius, who went to Perusia,
accompanied by Fulvia, a division of Antony’s veterans, and
numbers of fugitives from the municipia, senators and équités.
At Perusia they were besieged by Octavian. As it was believed
that peace was impossible, the besieged bore the famine which
,s The late Queen Caroline of Naples, the wife of King Ferdinand, and a
woman of great talent, very much resembled Fulvia in her conduct.—N.
WAli OF PERUSIA.
107
raged in the place with great resolution. This siege is one of
the most frightful in history. As all attempts at forcing their
way through the besieging army failed, L. Antonius and his
party at last capitulated. Octavian granted pardon to L. An-
tonius, who now turned round and acted as a traitor towards
his own party. Fulvia was set free on condition of quitting
Italy, whence she went to Greece. The veterans entered the
service of young Octavian, in the hope of receiving new
assignments of land, for he promised to take care of them, as if
they were his own; the newly enlisted soldiers likewise went
over to him, so that there remained only the unfortunate
senators, équités, and the inhabitants of Perusia, all of whom
were obliged to surrender at discretion: 300 of the most
distinguished citizens of the town were afterwards solemnly
sacrificed at the altar of Divus Julius. The town itself was
reduced to a heap of ashes, either by the despair of its inhabi-
tants or by the soldiers while plundering it. Perusia was
afterwards restored as a Julian military colony, under the name
of Perusia Augusta13, by which on solemn occasions it is still
called. Thus terminated an undertaking, in which people had
been obliged to entrust themselves to an unprincipled man,
who was not only without skill, but without any sense of honour.
There was now every appearance of the speedy breaking out of
a civil war.14
LECτuPE cm.
During the war at Perusia, Antony had not been able to
make up his mind to do anything, and it was not till the issue
of the contest was decided that he assembled his troops in
Greece, and came over to Brundusium. The mediation of
Maecenas and Cocceius now brought about the peace of Brun-
dusium1, between Octavian and Antony, which delayed the
outbreak of a fresh civil war, for nine years. To secure the
13 Appian, de Bell Civil, v. 32—50; Sucton. Ang. 15.
14 The celebrated fourth Eclogue of Virgil was written in 712, the year of
the Perusinian war. It is an eulogy on Asinius Pollio, who was then in Cisal-
pine Gaul, and not on good terms with Octavian. Virgil was at the time
probably at Mantua, and protected by Asinius Pollio..—N.
‘ Horace {Sat. i. 5. 29) alludes to this mediation, when he says of Maecenas