Octavius put out to sea on ships which were at hand, though it was still quite perilously wintry, and crossing the Ionian Sea, arrived at the nearest promontory of Calabria, where the news regarding the revolution at Rome had not yet been clearly announced to the inhabitants. He came ashore here and started on foot for Lupiae.[60] When he arrived there he met people who had been in Rome when Caesar was buried; and they told him, among other things, that he had been named in the will as Caesar’s son, inheriting three fourths of his property, the remaining share having been set aside to pay the sum of seventy five drachmae to each man in the city.[61] He had enjoined Atia, the youth’s mother, to take charge of his burial, but a great crowd had forced its way into the forum and had there cremated the body and interred the remains. They told Octavius that Brutus and Cassius and the other murderers had taken possession of the Capitol, and were obtaining, through the promise of freedom, the slaves as allies. On the first two days while Caesar’s friends were still panic stricken[62] many men came and joined the murderers; but when colonists from the neighboring cities (whom Caesar had furnished with grants and had established in those cities) began to come in large numbers and attach themselves to the followers of Lepidus, the master of horse,[63] and to those of Antonius, Caesar’s colleague in the consulship,[64] who were promising to avenge Caesar’s death, most of the conspirators’ group dispersed. The conspirators being thus deserted gathered some gladiators and others who were implacably hostile to Caesar, or who had had a share in the plot. A little later, all these came down from the Capitoline, having received pledges of safety from Antonius who now had a large force, but who for the present had given up his plan to avenge Caesar’s murder. (That was why they were allowed to leave Rome safely and go to Antium.)[65] Even their houses were besieged by the people, not under any leader, but the populace itself was enraged on account of the murder of Caesar, of whom they were fond, and especially when they had seen his bloody garment and newly slain body brought to burial when they had forced their way into the forum and had there interred it.