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I received a letter from Pollio informing me that on the Nones of May, the young Octavius, now insisting on being called by the name of Caesar, which at this point nobody was doing, arrived in Rome to take possession and control of his inheritance. He had been in Apollonia studying and preparing for his duties as a Military Tribune, and he returned in much the same manner as Caesar did when his adopted father attempted to cross the sea to spur Antonius on to bring the rest of the army over when we were in Greece, braving a tremendous storm to come to Rome. That was the story anyway; as I have learned, sometimes to my chagrin, the line between what is fact and fiction when it comes to the man now known as Augustus is sometimes so blurry as to be invisible. Whatever really happened, the story of his courageous crossing of the sea in a raging storm evoked memories of his adopted father, which was undoubtedly welcomed by Octavian. He brought with him another Tribune, a man who I believe would be considered one of the greatest military minds of his or any other time, if he had been more ambitious and not so devoted to Octavian, young Marcus Agrippa. They landed not at Brundisium, but at Lupiae, a smaller port where he would not attract so much attention. He immediately made his way to a nearby military camp, where he passed among the Legionaries posted there, dazzling them in much the same way I suppose he had dazzled me by his resemblance to Caesar. The men there immediately swore their allegiance to him, and I am sure that it was as much due to that resemblance as it was to his status as the lawful heir of Caesar. Traveling to Brundisium, now accompanied by a substantial body of Legionaries, he made the same impression on the more sizable group of men stationed at the port, this being the primary collection point for the planned Parthian operation. It was at Brundisium that he made the formal announcement that he was accepting the bequest of Caesar, that he would henceforth call himself Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, and that he expected all men to address him in this manner. Another event took place, one that has been the subject of much discussion, the fact of Octavian’s appearance at Brundisium coinciding with the simultaneous disappearance of the war chest that Caesar had set aside for the Parthian expedition. Nothing was ever said officially, but the grapevine in the army was of the strong opinion, in fact a certainty, that Octavian had taken it. I do not know exactly what transpired, but what I can say is that given the subsequent problems Octavian had prying his inheritance from Caesar from Antonius’ grasp, he somehow kept finding funds to fuel his enterprises. I suppose it was inevitable that the two of them should clash; there can only be one First Man, and despite his youth and inexperience, Octavian was a serious contender for the title, if only at first by virtue of his adoption by Caesar. Whatever the cause, it did not take long for matters to become heated between the two of them. Pollio wrote to me that the very day Octavian entered Rome he went to Antonius’ house, which ironically had once belonged to Pompey Magnus, and depending on whom you believed, either requested or demanded that Antonius hand over the cash portion of his inheritance, which Antonius had seized along with Caesar’s papers shortly after his murder. Either Pollio had a source that was there, or his correspondent had a vivid imagination, because Pollio’s letter went into great detail about the meeting. Antonius was extremely angry, according to this source, claiming that he had found the treasury empty, that he was using Caesar’s funds to conduct public business, and was in no way enriching his own purse. He went on to point out that he was under no obligation to give Octavian anything since the will had yet to be ratified. I imagine that he thought that this would quell any ideas Octavian had, but for the first though not the last time, he seriously underestimated the young man. I cannot say that I blame him; Octavian was very young, while his precious good looks did him no favors. Even after spending time with him and getting a glimpse of his intelligence and the flash of iron that I had seen, I found it hard to believe that he could be a serious rival to a man like Antonius. However, I was not the one with so much at stake, Antonius was. By choosing to treat Octavian as a young boy and not as an equal and serious rival, he put Octavian in a position to do Antonius great damage, an opportunity that Octavian wasted no time pressing to his advantage. After his refusal by Antonius, Octavian coolly announced that his primary concern was the disbursement of the bequest to the people that Caesar had made in his will, so if Antonius refused to honor his adopted father’s will, Octavian would, even if it meant using his own money. This is why I for one believed the stories that he had appropriated Caesar’s war chest, because while his family was wealthy, the kind of money it took to pay every citizen the 100 denarii apiece that Caesar had promised was staggering. Antonius was outraged, and I have no doubt that this time his anger was real, because Octavian was spending his time in the Forum loudly proclaiming his intention of paying the people, while decrying Antonius for not abiding by the terms of Caesar’s will. Not surprisingly, this put Antonius in quite a difficult situation, and coupled with his actions against Amatius, he was no longer the darling of the people, Octavian was. It was only through the intercession of intermediaries that an accommodation between the two was reached, although I do not believe anyone thought it would last very long. I am sure that the entrance of Octavian onto the stage was also behind Antonius’ announcement that instead of governing Macedonia, as originally planned, he would be taking the governorship of none other than nearby Cisalpine Gaul. Suddenly, Antonius’ official policy of no reprisals against any of The Liberators evaporated like a drop of water in the desert as he announced that he was marching with the approval of the Senate to punish the current governor of the province Decimus Brutus. Antonius at least tried to keep up the pretense of legality by going to ask for the Senate to enact the transfer of the governorship. Apparently, he did so at the head of almost a full Cohort of some of the veterans he had enlisted in Campania, so that most of the Senate, fearing that Antonius would do to them what he had done to the supporters of Amatius, stayed away from the Forum. However, Antonius was not to be put off; instead, he had one of his tame Tribunes of the Plebs issue an edict, giving the transfer at least the veneer of legality, no matter how thin. Most importantly for Antonius, and conversely for Octavian, it gave Antonius the legitimate command of an army of four Legions, including the 7th, while Octavian held no official post, and therefore had nothing, at least in terms of an army. He did have his name, which was enough for the veterans, most of them anyway.