The fall of Sextus involved both in temporary embarrassments. Octavian found himself with forty-five legions, but confronted by a mutiny. Uncomfortably enough, his troops were beginning to believe his own propaganda. He had concluded the civil wars and brought peace on land and sea, so he said:179 well, in that case there was no need for further service, and they demanded immediate demobilization. That would hardly do. Octavian knew he would need them again soon. But at least the longest-serving could be released, those who had fought for Octavian since Mutina and Philippi, some 20,000 men.180 There were delays, but land was found for most of them, largely in Italy but partly in Gaul.181 The others were promised 500 denarii, and, rather surprisingly, soon received it;182 they were also induced to expect lucrative spoils in Illyricum — not very plausible for any who knew the land, but probably few did, and the ploy passed. Octavian could now return to Rome and acclaim. He celebrated an ovatio, and the other honours included a grant of tribunicial sacrosanctity,183 interestingly presaging a conspicuous feature of his later constitutional facade. And there was more talk of restoring the Republic when Antony returned - how could he refuse, now Octavian had ended the civil wars? Peace and security would shortly be restored at home as welclass="underline" Calvisius Sabinus was appointed to put down Italian brigandage, and a police force of some sort was established in Rome itself.184 There was even a remission of some taxes, and the regular magistrates were ostentatiously allowed more freedom.185 This was not the first time that the triumvirs had portrayed themselves as champions of Roman tradition, even a sort of constitutional normality.186 But Octavian was beginning to steal the mask for his own.
In Antony's case, the embarrassment was Sextus himself. In the winter of 36/5 he arrived at Mytilene, hoping to ally himself with Antony; when
App. BCiv. v.i 28.5 50, 130.540-2, 132.546-8; cf. Dio xlix.15.2.
App. BCiv. v. 129.534 ('since Mutina or Philippi'); Dio xlix. 14.1 specifies those who had served'since Mutina or for ten years'; cf. Reinhold 1988(b i )o)njloc.\ Brunt 1971 (a 9) 3 31; Keppie 1983 (e 65) 69-73. Some of them soon re-enlisted: Dio xlix.54.3.
Keppie 1983 (e 65) 70-3; cf. Dio xlix.34.4.
Dio xlix. 14.2, with Reinhold 1988 (в 150) alloc.-, App. BCiv. v. 129.536.
See Endnote, p. 68.
ш App. BCiv. v.132.547; cf. Suet. Aug. 32; Dio XLix.15.1j Palmer 1978 (c 184) 320-1.
App. BCiv. v.150.540, 132.548; Dio XLIX.15.3; cf. Nicolet 1976(0104)95.
See above, pp. 19-21, 27.
he heard of the Parthian disaster, he began to intrigue against him instead. Either way, he was a problem. Not that he was very strong: he was raising troops again, but even at the end he had little more than three legions and a handful of ships.[95] But he would be an awkward ally: with Italy being encouraged to celebrate his downfall, it might now seem to be Antony rather than Octavian who was refusing to let the civil wars die. And it would be awkward to kill him too. There were enough people in Rome who still recalled wistfully the hopes they had placed in him:[96]Octavian himself, outrageously, was later to make capital of this, and attack Antony for his faithless treatment of him.[97] Antony appointed M. Titius to take charge of the problem. Titius' father had been among the proscribed who fled to Sextus, and Titius himself had been spared by Sextus when captured by Menodorus in 40.[98] Antony probably selected Titius precisely because of these earlier favours, to smooth any dealings which proved necessary. But in the event no dealing proved possible, for Sextus' faithlessness became too apparent. By the spring of 3 5 the pursuit was tying up the governors of both Asia and Bithynia, C. Furnius and Domitius Ahenobarbus, as well as a sizeable fleet; King Amyntas too was involved. That was too much. When Sextus was finally captured by Amyntas in Phrygia, he was brought to Titius in Miletus and executed there. Antony may or may not have authorized his death. If he did, he covered his tracks: some said that Plancus, not he, had given the order; other stories were told of two letters, one ordering the execution and one countermanding it, which of course arrived in the wrong sequence.[99]
Antony himself was more concerned with Armenia. He was clearly determined to exact vengeance from Artavasdes; and he doubtless considered he was being prudent as well as vindictive, for he still dreamed of a second Parthian campaign. (He was indeed to embark on one two years later.) For this a secure Armenia was essential; but that could never be, as long as Artavasdes was king. Matters now took an unexpected turn, for an envoy arrived in Alexandria from the Median Artavasdes, Antony's enemy of the previous year: an envoy in fact of peculiar distinction, King Polemo himself. Antony's designs on Armenia would seem no surprise, and Median Artavasdes offered Antony an alliance. Antony accepted, and set out from Egypt during the summer.
Perhaps he pretended that he was attacking the Parthians; but his immediate goal was surely Armenia.[100]
For the present it came to nothing, for a different sort of crisis supervened. Octavia arrived in the East. Whatever people were saying about her husband and Cleopatra, she was still his wife. (Her journey indeed demonstrates that Italians at least could not yet think of Antony as married to Cleopatra: otherwise she would surely have divorced him by now.)[101] It may well be that Octavian himself had encouraged his sister in the mission, as some suspected;[102] it was certainly deeply embarrassing to Antony — and not just because of Cleopatra, who was away from Antony's company at present, tactfully at home in Alexandria.[103] The real problem was that Octavia was bringing with her 2,000 elite troops from her brother, besides money and supplies to replace those lost in Parthia, and perhaps some Italian cavalry.[104] Octavian in fact owed Antony far more than this, all the 20,000 troops that he had promised at Tarentum in return for Antony's 140 ships.[105] Those ships had been most useful in the war against Sextus, and since then Octavian had returned half of them; but that was hardly enough.[106] It would be a triumph for Octavian if Antony accepted the troops, but insulting to Octavia if he refused - and probably politically damaging as well, for Octavian was soon to show himself adept at building propaganda from his sister's maltreatment.[107] Sensibly, Antony accepted. But that was all the annoyance he was prepared to take from Octavia's presence for the moment, and he told her to stay in Athens, perhaps even to return to Rome.[108] He himself retired to Alexandria for the winter of 3 5 /4. (It was evidently too late in the season to resume the Armenian expedition.) Cleopatra was more congenial company than Octavia; Octavian could make of that what he wished. In fact, he would make a great deal.
In early 34 Antony turned to Armenia again. First, during the winter, came diplomacy: he sent Dellius to ask the Armenian Artavasdes for the king's daughter, pretending he wished to marry her to his son Alexander Helios. She would of course make a splendid hostage. Artavasdes was shrewd enough to refuse. In the spring Antony appeared suddenly at
Nicopolis on the Armenian border, and sent for the Armenian king to discuss a new Parthian campaign; Artavasdes again refused. While Dellius travelled once more to ask Artavasdes to a conference, Antony himself marched quickly on Artaxata; Artavasdes was finally forced by his own nobility and soldiers to come to Antony, despite his suspicions of such curious friendliness. Antony took him captive, and quickly occupied the whole country: he left his troops there for the winter, and within a year at least sixteen legions would be there.[109] His enemies, first among them Octavian, might claim that the victory was all dishonourable, won through perfidy; his friends would retort that Artavasdes' own treachery justified it quite sufficiently.[110] At least, it was something to restore Antony's paling prestige. On coins he could celebrate a conquest at last: ARMENIA DEVICTA.[111]