Octavian had taken care to have the defense of Italy against Antony and Lepidus entrusted to himself, and hastened northwards to meet the advance of their forces. But both sides were ready to come to terms and unite their forces for the purpose of crushing their common enemies, Brutus and Cassius. Accordingly, at a conference of the three leaders on an island in the river Renus near Bononia, a reconciliation between Antony and Octavian was effected and plans laid for their coöperation in the immediate future. The three decided to have themselves appointed triumvirs for the settlement of the commonwealth (_triumviri reipublicae __constituendae_) for a term of five years. They were to have consular _imperium_ with the right to appoint to the magistracies and their acts were to be valid without the approval of the Senate. Furthermore, they divided among themselves the western provinces; Antony received those previously assigned to him, Lepidus took the Spains and Narbonese Gaul; while to Octavian fell Sardinia, Sicily and Africa. Octavian was to resign his consulship, but in the next year to be joint commander with Antony in a campaign against the republican armies in the East while Lepidus protected their interests in Rome. The triumvirate was legalized by a tribunician law (the _lex Titia_) of 27 November, 43, and its members formally entered upon office on the first of January following. Unlike the secret coalition of Pompey, Crassus and Caesar, the present one constituted a commission clothed with almost supreme public powers. *Proscriptions.* The formation of the coalition was followed by the proscription of the enemies of the triumvirs, partly for the sake of vengeance but largely to secure money for their troops from the confiscation of the properties of the proscribed. Among the chief victims was Cicero, whose death Antony demanded. He died with courage for the sake of the republican ideal to which he was devoted, but it must be recognized that this devotion was to the cause of a corrupt aristocracy, whose crimes he refused to share, although he forced himself to condone and justify them. The exactions of the triumvirs did not end with the confiscation of the goods of the proscribed; special taxes were laid upon the propertied classes in Italy and eighteen of the most flourishing Italian municipalities were marked out as sites for colonies of veterans.