Before they went their seperate ways after Philippi, Antony and Octavian confirmed their decision of how Rome's provinces were to be divided up and ruled. There were a few changes, however, and Lepidus got the short end of the stick. They suspected him of treasonable communication with Sextus Pompeius, leader of the republican forces in Sicily. Because of this Lepidus had to give up Spain to Octavian and Narbonese Gaul to Antony. If somehow Ledpidus could prove his innocence, Octavian might give up a province from his allocation. Mark Antony retained Narbonese Gaul (Long-haired Gaul) but gave up Cisalpine Gaul, which the triumvirs decided should be made part of Italy instead of continuing as a province, which had been Julius Caesar's idea first. This was an intelligent plan that would remove the threat of a potentially 'treasonous' provincial governor in command of an army that was only a few days march from Rome. Essentially-another Julius Caesar. Interesting, to me anyway, is how the men who had seized power illegally in Rome from Sulla on, sought to prevent other men from doing exactly the very things they had done! Mark Antony, as the senior man in the partnership and Octavian's spoils from the victory at Philippi were divided quite unevenly. Antony was to rule over the east, reorganize it and raise money to restore Rome's solvency. Eventually he would make arrangements to go to war against the Parthians as Caesar had intended to do before his assassination. The idea being to not only 'prevent' the Parthians from causing trouble but to get vengeance and recover the standards lost by Crassus's disastrous defeat in 53 BC. In contrast to Antony, Octavian had the very thankless task of demobilizing a large number of troops and settle them in smallholdings in Italy. Approximately 14,000 survivors from the legions of Cassius and Brutus were added to the victorious army. The old Caesarian veterans who had been recruited in 49 and 48 BC, some forty thousand total were sent to Italy to become civilians. This was enough men to give Mark Antony eight more legions which he took to the east and three legions to Octavian in the west. Octavian faced a big problem. There was not enough land to accomodate the veterans and the treasury was empty, so compulsory purchase was not an option. Eighteen cities in Italy had their land confiscated and the freeholders kicked out. This outraged and inflamed public opinion to the point that those affected 'marched on Rome' themselves. Appian tells us: "People came in groups...young men, old men, women with their children, and gathered in the Forum and the temples, lamenting and declaring that they had done no wrong." Octavian simply told them the awful truth to the people saying, "From what other source, then, are we to pay the veterans their prize money?"
Even worse, the land that had been taken was still not enough and some former soldiers resorted to violence to grab farms they hadn't been granted, often with more fertile land. This led to the breakdown of law and order in many parts of Italy. Octavian's relations with his soldiers also began to falter as one alarming incident shows. Veterans had been told to go to the Campus Martius to hear announcements about the allocations. The men were so hungry for news that they arrived early, some before dawn. Octavian was late to the meeting and they became enraged. When a centurion gave the crowd a browbeating for their behavior they began yelling at him-and then they killed him. This was an occasion where Octavian made a very brave decision. If he now stayed completely away from the assembly what had been a crisis would end in calamity. So Octavian came, turning away when he saw the centurion's body and politely asked the legionaires if they would comport themselves with more restraint in the future. Then he gave out the expected land grants, some bounties and invited further petitions for reward. With cool calculation, Octavian had so disarmed the crowd that they showed remorse for what they had done and asked Octavian to punish the centurion's killers. He agreed to do this but wisely imposed two conditions: that the guilty admit to their deed and that the army as a whole condemn them.
This wasn't the end of the story by any means. During 41 BC Octavian was walking on a tightrope. On one side trying to pacify the veterans, on the other trying to mend fences with the civilian population. Cassius Dio reports: "He learned from actual experience that weapons had no power to make the injured feel friendly towards him." So Octavian no longer took senatorial estates or other kinds of private property. But once again, the veterans were not happy about this. Dio claims that yet more centurions were killed who were seen as taking his side: "They came very near to killing [Octavian] himself, making any excuse justify their anger." Relations deteriorated between the veterans and the dispossessed citizens to the point that there was rioting in Rome and once again Italy was coming unglued. An event similar to a general strike is reported by Appian: "The civilian population shut the workshops and made the elected officeholders leave, saying that they had no need of either office holders or crafts in a starving and plundered city."
And yet another confounding thorn was about to strike at the young divi filius. In a pattern seen from ancient times to the twenty-first century, the landless poor and just plain desperate had flocked to the big cities-in this case Rome. A multitude of men, women and children depended on the supply of subsidized grain to keep them from starving. Every year the city went through between 140,000 and 190,000 tons of wheat. More than 300,000 citizens alone were on the dole and received free supplies of grain. Some of the grain came from Italy but a large proportion came from Sicily, Africa and Sardinia. Italy was not agriculturally self-sufficient and Rome was very dependent on the whims of international politics. This is very similar to modern industrial societies and their reliance on imports of gas, oil and in some cases food and other goods. Pompey the Great had understood just how dependent the Republic was for its necessities on apen and free shipping lanes. That is why in 67 BC he undertook to clear the Meditteranean of pirates, who had become such a problem that they were threatening to starve Italy. Twenty-five years later Pompey's son controlled the same waters that his father had made safe. We can wonder if he had heard his father talk of the problem as a boy and thus learned the value of such a strategic stranglehold-ironically with Sextus Pompeius now playing the 'pirate'.
The image is of a "war elephant" of Hannibal represented on a plate. Rome's first encounter with elephants that served in wars with men was from its early death struggle with the maritime power Carthage in the third century BC. I hope to have the next article here soon-I think I am still running at least three or four "ahead"-which is actually good. Now if I were not such a lousy typist I could get the information here! Thanks again to anyone reading or commenting on this blog-best wishes to all of you!
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