Greece -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Rome -- Biography -- Early works to 1800
XXXV. Antonius being again irritated against Cæsar by certain calumnies,
sailed to Italy with three hundred vessels; but as the people of
Brundusium would not receive his fleet, he sailed round and anchored at
Tarentum.[392] There he sent Octavia, for she accompanied him from
Greece, at her request, to her brother: she was then pregnant, and had
already borne him two daughters. She met Cæsar on the way, and after
gaining over his friends Agrippa and Mæcenas,[393] she prayed him with
much urgency and much entreaty not to let her become a most wretched
woman after being most happy. For now, she said, all men turned their
eyes upon her, who was the wife of one Imperator and the sister of
another; "but if the worse should prevail," she continued, "and there
should be war, it is uncertain which of you must be the victor and which
the vanquished; but I shall be unfortunate both ways." Cæsar, being
moved by these words, came in a friendly manner to Tarentum, and those
who were present saw a most noble spectacle, a large army on land
tranquil, and many ships quietly holding on the shore, and the meeting
and friendly salutations of the two Imperators and their friends.
Antonius gave an entertainment first, which Cæsar consented to for his
sister's sake. It being agreed that Cæsar should give Antonius two
legions for the Parthian war, and that Antonius should give Cæsar a
hundred brazen-beaked vessels. Octavia, independently of what had been
agreed, asked for her brother twenty light ships[394] from her husband,
and for her husband a thousand soldiers from her brother. Accordingly,
separating from one another, the one immediately engaged in the war
against Pompeius,[395] being desirous to get Sicily; and Antonius,
entrusting to Cæsar Octavia and his children by her and by Fulvia,
crossed over to Asia.
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