Cicero - Anthony Everitt [180]
The rumors of Octavian seeking the Consulship turned out to be well grounded. According to Appian, he no longer troubled to communicate with the Senate but dealt privately with Cicero. He invited Cicero to join him in the Consulship—an echo of the far-off days when his adoptive father had tried to recruit the orator to join the First Triumvirate. It is possible that on this occasion Cicero was tempted to say yes, although a letter of the time to Brutus indicates otherwise. He claimed that “as soon as I had an inkling of [his wish to be Consul], I wrote him letter after letter of warning and taxed those friends of his who seemed to be backing his ambition to their faces, and I did not scruple to expose the origins of these criminal designs in the Senate.” The Senate was reluctant to give way to Octavian and postponed the elections. There was talk of a compromise that would allow him to stand as Praetor, but the sop was insufficient.
Not without reason, the families of the conspirators suspected that if he became Consul, the Dictator’s heir would launch a proscription. People were coming to believe that his alliance with the Republicans had been a pretense. He meant to avenge his father’s murder and restore his autocracy; no doubt it had been his secret policy all along.
In August, for the second time in a year, Octavian marched on Rome at the head of eight legions. He sent a flying force in advance, which entered the city and met the Senate. The soldiers made three demands: the Consulship, restoration of the bounty for the troops and, a sinister token of his future intentions, the repeal of the decree of outlawry against Antony. In the context of people’s fears, this was a comparatively modest request. It looked as if there would not, after all, be a proscription.
Some Senators lost their tempers and apparently struck the soldiers. One of the soldiers fetched his sword and touched it, saying: “If you don’t give Caesar the Consulship, this will.” Cicero replied dryly: “If that’s the way you ask for something, I am sure you’re right.”
Reluctant to face reality, the Senate would not be moved. Then, as Octavian approached, it panicked and issued a flurry of edicts, allowing him to stand for the Consulship in absentia, doubling the original army bonus, winding up the contentious Land Commission and transferring its powers to Octavian. But there was no stopping the young man now and he continued his advance.
With the arrival in Rome of the legions from Africa there was a flurry of resistance. The city planned for a siege, but the soldiers refused to fight and declared for the young Caesar. The next day he entered the city protected by a bodyguard. Even his opponents came out to greet him. The Urban Praetor, the Republic’s senior public official following the deaths of the Consuls, killed himself; this was the only bloodshed recorded.
Cicero arranged to meet Octavian and reportedly raised the now dead question of the joint Consulship. The “heaven-sent boy” did not bother to make a direct response. He simply remarked, with mocking regret, that Cicero had been the “last of his friends” to greet him.
A flame of hope briefly flared and died down again. A rumor spread through the city that two of Octavian’s legions were preparing to defect. Senators met at dawn at the Senate House with Cicero welcoming them at the door. AS soon as it transpired that there was nothing to the story he slipped away on a litter. On August 19 the Consular elections