108
peace of Brundusium.
permanence of the peace, it was agreed that Antony should
marry Octavia, the widow of C. Marcellus, and half sister of
Octavian, not by Atia, but by the same father, so that she did
not belong to the Julian house. Antony was unworthy of her,
and treated her in the most disgraceful manner. She was a
noble woman, though she lived in a very corrupt age, and is
a sad instance of the personal and domestic misfortunes to
which persons of high rank are exposed. Her conduct as a
wife was exemplary, towards Antony who shamefully neglected
her, as well as towards C. Marcellus. As a mother she was
excellent, but she had the misfortune to lose her dearest
son, M. Marcellus, who was the hope of the Roman people;
among her children by Antony seems to have been one only,
—Antonia, subsequently the wife of Drusus, the son of Livia,
—that was a pleasure and a comfort to her. A new division
of the empire also was made at Brundusium : Antony was to
have the whole of the eastern part from the Ionian sea2, and
Octavian the western with the exception of Africa, which was
given to Lepidus, to whom, I believe, Sicily and the islands
between Sicily and Africa also were assigned, although Sicily
was yet in the possession of Scxtus Pompeius, the younger son
of Pompey the great
After the battle of Munda, Sex. Pompeius had taken refuge
among the Celtiberians, and collected a force. During the
year of Caesar’s death he carried on a war against Asinius
Pollio, in which he maintained himself, although nothing de-
cisive was effected. During the amnesty which was proclaimed
after the death of Caesar, he with the other exiles had been
recalled by the senate from Marseilles, and the value of his
paternal property and the imperium orae maritimae were to be
restored to him. 'Γhe former he did not receive, but he cre-
ated the imperium for himself. The proscriptions which then
and Cocceius aversos soliti componere arnicas. Most of Horace’s poems are pro-
ductions ofhis youth, or at least belong to the period previous to the battle of
Actium. But I do not believe that we possess any of his productions which
belong to an earlier date than the battle of Philippi. The most poetical period
of his life was when he was about the age of thirty. — N.
2 This division appeared so natural to the ancients that, in the time of the
emperors, the same line of demarcation was drawn between the eastern and
western parts of the empire ; in the reign of Severus it was projected ; under
Dioclctian it was almost fixed, and at last under the sons of Theodosius was
permanently established.—N.
SEXTUS POMΓEIUS.
109
followed brought him into great danger, and he could not
venture to go to Rome, as Antony was in possession of his
father’s house in the Carinae, and would have killed him. He
now wandered about as an adventurer, and as the captain of a
band of pirates, like those whom his father had conquered;
for the sons of those pirates, or they themselves, were, accord-
ing to the oriental fashion, attached to their conqueror or his
family as their patrons. With the help of these pirates, Sext.
Pompeius made himself master of Sicily, which was still almost
wholly a Greek country. The pirates were either Greeks or
Hellenised Asiatics, so that the power which now became estab-
lished in Sicily, was a very peculiar and strange one. After
the battle of Philippi, Statius Marcus joined Sext. Pompeius
with a part of the fleet of Brutus and Cassius. Domitius
Ahenobarbus with the rest of the fleet, carried on war for two
years on his own account, and then joined Asinius Pollio;
who reconciled him to Antony to whom Domitius then attached
himself. Before going to Philippi, Antony had made an un-
successful attempt upon Sicily, and during the two years which
followed the defeat of Brutus and Cassius down to the peace of
Brundusium, 712, Sext. Pompeius greatly increased his forces
and established his power.
Octavian and Antony had made the new division of the
empire independently of Lepidus, whom they had confined to
Africa without asking his consent. Apeace was also concluded
between Sext. Pompeius and the triumvirs, near Cape Misenum.
Pompeius here appeared with his fleet and received the trium-
virs in his admiral-ship. He then returned their confidence
by landing and partaking of an entertainment with them.
While the triumvirs were on board the ship of Pompeius,
Menodorus, one of his commanders, who had formerly been the
leader of a band of robbers, conceived the plan of cutting the
cable, and carrying off the two triumvirs. But Pompeius
would not allow the scheme to be carried into effect. By the
peace of Misenum, which remedied the great distress of the
Roman people, who were severely suffering from want of pro-
visions, Pompeius obtained Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, to
which, according to a very probable account, Achaia and Sar-
dinia were added, so that he was in the centre of the maritime
region; he remained in the undisturbed possession of these
islands for four years. By this peace also all the surviving pro-
scribed obtained permission to return to Rome.