Marcus Agrippa: Right-hand Man of Caesar Augustus (11 page)

Almost a year after the
dictator
’s bloody murder, the assassins still roamed free. D. Iunius Brutus was beginning his new assignment as governor of Gallia Cisalpina and Antonius saw him as a potential ally.
⁸⁹
Yet Decimus, who had three legions (one entirely of new recruits) and a number of gladiators under his command, saw Antonius as a threat and refused to have any dealings with him.
⁹⁰
The rebuff delighted Cicero who, since 2 September 44 BCE, had been delivering his series of
Philippics
denouncing Antonius for his political ambition, while praising Caesar.
⁹¹
However, many wanted to see justice done for the unlawful murder of Iulius Caesar and Decimus was recalled.
⁹²
He adamently refused to surrender his commission.
⁹³
Antonius, with four legions including the troops from Macedonia, soon had Brutus and the two legions under the renegade’s command blockaded in Mutina (Modena) – the city which gave its name to the ensuing war (
Bellum Mutinense
).
⁹⁴
He ordered his men to dig a circumvallation around the wealthy city and prepared to lay siege.
⁹⁵

In the meantime, the conservative bloc of senators led by Cicero, who stood resolutely against the Caesarians, pushed through the House a motion which charged the new consuls for 43 BCE, A. Hirtius and C. Vibius Pansa, to assemble an army to
relieve
D. Brutus and declared Antonius and Lepidus public enemies for having seized Gallia Cisalpina with an armed force – in effect, staging an attack on the
Res Publica
.
⁹⁶
Where, the Senate asked, would it find an army to save its men?

It found an unexpected ally. Caesar had five legions – two which had defected from Antonius, two of
evocati
and one of new levies – at Alba.
⁹⁷
The men who had defected put on a display of military manoeuvres and Caesar rewarded them all with a bonus of 500
drachmai
, and a promise of more if they brought him victory.
⁹⁸
Believing him to be on their side, the Senate praised Caesar.
⁹⁹
He had consistently expressed the view that his sole interest was to see the assassins of his great uncle face charges for their heinous crime. Perceiving him as a non-threat, and indeed, as a political asset against Antonius, he was granted the right to stand for the consulship ten years before the legal period and was promoted to the rank of
propraetor
, an honour normally granted to men who had served as consul and were at least 35-years-old.
¹⁰⁰
Urged on by Cicero, the Senate issued an ultimatum to Antonius that he should suspend the siege, return the province to Decimus, withdraw to behind the Rubicon and present himself to the Conscript Fathers.
¹⁰¹
Caesar was now directed to assist the consuls and, keen to humble Antonius and crimp his ambitions, he obliged. He soon reflected that he had, in fact, been duped by the Senate. All they really wanted was his army – since a
propraetor
had no authority in the presence of a serving consul – and to provoke a war between him and Antonius.
¹⁰²
With Agrippa and Salvidienus at his side, he
rode despondently beside consul Hirtius in the direction of the conflict zone in the foothills of the Italian Alps.
¹⁰³

Separately Pansa made his way northwards with four legions.
¹⁰⁴
Antonius learned that the consul was
en route
and moved quickly to intercept him before he could reach Mutina. At daybreak on 15 April, on the
Via Aemilia
outside the small town of Forum Gallorum, Antonius’ men appeared on either side of the road and ambushed the consul’s army.
¹⁰⁵
Appian would later, and somewhat melodramatically, describe how the novice troops watched in amazement at the battle-hardened veterans fighting each other in virtual silence, since they knew the practised war cries of one side would not strike terror into the other.
¹⁰⁶
Pansa had been taken by complete surprise, and was mortally wounded in the battle.
¹⁰⁷
Claiming victory, Antonius suspended what might have been a general rout, but was astonished to run straight into Hirtius’ army marching up from the south.
¹⁰⁸
His men, exhausted from the encounter with Pansa, were themselves routed by the fresh troops of Hirtius who snatched his two legionary eagle (
aquila
) standards.
¹⁰⁹
It was a humiliating end to the day, but Antonius was lucky to escape back with his cavalry – and his life – to camp. What Agrippa was doing throughout is, frustratingly, not revealed in the extant accounts.

Antonius returned to the siege at Mutina.
¹¹⁰
The combined army of the consuls arrived and attempted to break through Antonius’ lines and relieve the city.
¹¹¹
Assisting them were Caesar and his friend Agrippa.
¹¹²
Iulius Caesar’s old officer Hirtius assumed command and, when he asked the adopted son for his legions, as the junior commander of the two he had no choice but to release them. On 27 April the two armies clashed before the walls of Mutina.
¹¹³
The army relieving the city probed Antonius’ defences but, when he did not engage them, they switched their attack to another point along the circumvallation. Antonius shadowed their movements with his cavalry. Eventually he ordered two legions to burst out of the entrenchments and the real battle ensued. Soon he needed to call up reserves from his camps. His own camp was scaled with Hirtius leading the charge, but he fell in the attack near Antonius’ personal tent (
praetorium
).
¹¹⁴
Appian reports that Caesar charged in and retrieved the consul’s body. Decimus now led a sortie out of the city.
¹¹⁵
Under intense attack on two fronts Antonius’ army crumpled. Seeing no chance for victory, under the cover of darkness, Antonius abandoned the siege, slipped away with as many men as he could take and retreated over the Alps to Gallia Narbonensis.
¹¹⁶
There his ally Aemilius Lepidus was in command. L. Munatius Plancus, proconsul of Gallia Comata with three legions, and C. Asinius Pollio, proconsul of Hispania Ulterior with two legions, also both rallied to him.
¹¹⁷

When the news of Antonius’ flight and Brutus’ survival reached Rome, Cicero read out the report with impish delight.
¹¹⁸
Though Hirtius had been killed during the battle at Mutina and Pansa was fast approaching death. A thanksgiving of fifty days was granted to the two consuls and Caesar in equal measure and payments were issued to the troops.
¹¹⁹
Caesar was told to report to Brutus, a situation the young man found intolerable – the man had, after all, been a party to the murder of his adoptive father. Decimus urged Caesar to cross the Apennines
and intercept Antonius’ relief army under P. Ventidius.
¹²⁰
But Caesar now presented his own demand to the Senate: he wanted a triumph.
¹²¹
His request was denied. It granted one to Brutus instead.
¹²²
Caesar had served his usefulness for the Senate. With Antonius apparently out of the way, Cicero believed Caesar could now be sidelined. On 24 May he wrote a letter to D. Brutus with the chilling phrase, ‘praise and compliment the youth – then remove him’.
¹²³
He, like so many others, underestimated the man he so dismissively disparaged. The political reality had changed and Caesar knew it. Caesar needed a new strategy.
¹²⁴
He wrote to Lepidus and Pollio explaining the indignities he had suffered, suggesting that as Caesarians they would share Antonius’ fate if they did not unite with him.
¹²⁵
Lepidus replied encouraging him to reconcile with Antonius.
¹²⁶
Caesar then presented a revised demand before the Senate. He wanted nothing less than the consulship.
¹²⁷
When his request was again refused he dispatched a team of centurions to re-present his demand, this time more persuasively. The armed soldiers were a menacing presence in the civic chamber. While the Conscript Fathers dithered, one of the officers by the name of Cornelius, threw back his cloak, placed his hand on the pommel of his
gladius
and said, ‘this will do it if you don’t!’
¹²⁸
The Senate relented and agreed to Caesar’s demand: aged just 19 he was consul.
¹²⁹
When his transverse crested emissaries returned with the good news, his jubilant legionaries urged Caesar to lead them to Rome. He consented. This was an opportunity to assert his mandate, and his troops deserved their reward.
¹³⁰
On his arrival in the city, he demanded that the public money be brought to him and that the 2,500
drachmai
per man that had been previously ordered to be paid to each man in Cicero’s motion be distributed with a promise to give them the remainder when he received it.
¹³¹
From now on he would not enter the Senate House without a military escort.
¹³²
On 22 August 43 BCE Caesar and Pedius were sworn in as consuls.
¹³³

There was one other outstanding matter. The long delayed
lex curiata
was finally passed: the man formerly known as C. Octavius Thurinus was formally adopted into
gens Iulia
and permitted to use the name of C. Iulius Caesar.
¹³⁴
The metamorphosis of the new Caesar was complete.

Sixteen months after the murder of Iulius Caesar consul Pedius presented a resolution before the Senate. It officially required the prosecution of the assassins. The
Lex Pedia
, passed on 27 November when tribune P. Titius secured the Popular Assembly’s vote, prohibited the murderers from receiving fire and water.
¹³⁵
Agrippa was rewarded for his loyalty. He was put in charge of leading the high-profile prosecution against the ring leader, C. Cassius Longinus.
¹³⁶
Cassius had long since left Rome along with co-conspirator M. Iunius Brutus.
¹³⁷
Agrippa secured verdicts against Cassius: he was condemned
in absentia
and declared an outlaw. The leading assasin now had a price on his head. It is possible, but not substantiated, that after the trial Agrippa may have benefited from the case by acquiring some of Cassius’ confiscated assets.
¹³⁸

Agrippa’s political career begins here. There is tantalizing evidence that he was appointed a tribune during his lifetime.
¹³⁹
This is the most likely moment in his long career that he could have assumed this position. The ten tribunes normally assumed the office on 10 December and served for a year (see
Appendix 1
). A tribune had the authority to convene assemblies of the plebs and propose acts which were binding (
plebiscita
), as well as the right to convoke the Conscript Fathers and propose
senatus consulta
. Having his own man in such a position would greatly help the young Caesar. In the office of tribune, Agrippa could veto any act committed by a magistrate, which included the
senatus consulta
, and even block fellow tribunes, all without fear of arrest or injury or the offender being declared an outlaw.

To hunt down and bring to justice the remaining conspirators, who between them commanded more than twenty legions as well as a fleet of warships and cash, the Caesarians needed to combine forces.
¹⁴⁰
Among his first motions as consul Caesar had the decrees declaring Antonius, Lepidus, and the soldiers commanded by them, public enemies, repealed.
¹⁴¹
Caesar immediately wrote to Antonius offering assistance if he needed it against D. Brutus. Antonius replied curtly that he would deal with the man himself. In one grisly account Antonius declined to meet Decimus but ordered him killed and, when the instruction was carried out, had his enemy’s head brought to him.
¹⁴²
Appian records that another assassin, Minucius Basilus, was killed by his slaves, some of whom he was in the process of castrating by way of punishment at the time.
¹⁴³

Caesar then marched with five legions to Gallia Cisalpina and, on the banks of the Lavinius River near Mutina, met Antonius and Lepidus.
¹⁴⁴
At a two day conference, they carved up the Roman world among themselves.
¹⁴⁵
Caesar assumed responsibility for Africa, Sardinia and Sicily. Antonius was assigned the Gallic provinces, except Aquitania, and Lepidus received Aquitania, the Hispanic provinces and Italy.
¹⁴⁶
Eighteen towns in Italy, mostly those which had supported the conspirators, were earmarked to be divided up as though they were war spoils among their troops as an incentive for services to be rendered.
¹⁴⁷
The commission they set up, entitled the
Triumviri Rei Publicae Constituendae Consulari Potestate
– ‘Three Men with Consular Power for Confirming the Commonwealth’, abbreviated as
III VIR RPC
(
plate 18
) – was later recognized by law with the passing of the
Lex Titia
on 27 November.
¹⁴⁸
It was a temporary arrangement, intended to last just five years, but the new Triumvirate gave formal expression to its power backed by military might, as Iulius Caesar’s dictatorship had done.
¹⁴⁹
To bind the men together, young Caesar married Antonius’ daughter Clodia.
¹⁵⁰
Agrippa was not chosen as one of the triumvirs, but his close association with young Caesar effectively made him an unofficial junior partner at the council.

It was becoming clear to all that a new civil war would ensue soon. To prosecute it the Commission of Three Men would need money in abundance. Between them they had forty-three legions, but the treasury to pay for them was effectively bare. The triumvirate resorted to confiscating the assets of its political enemies. Following the examples of Marius and Sulla years before, proscriptions were drawn up.
¹⁵¹
Proscribed persons were entered on to a list and their money
and property were forfeited, and for those who resisted the prospects were exile or death.
¹⁵²
The triumvirs haggled over names, where an enemy of the one might be a family member or friend of the other.
¹⁵³
When they completed their ‘barter of murder’, as Plutarch describes it, the names of 300 senators and 2,000 equestrians were on the list.
¹⁵⁴
On 24 November the triumvirs marched with a large contingent of troops into Rome and began enforcing the confiscations; but they sent ahead of them a small group who would visit the richest and most important men first. Among the first wave of victims was 64-year-old M. Tullius Cicero, placed on the list by Antonius as revenge for the sustained verbal attacks he had suffered in his
Philippics
.
¹⁵⁵
He was tracked down to his villa in Formiae (Formia) preparing to depart for Macedonia. On 7 December he was visited by a detachment of soldiers led by tribune Popilius and centurion Herennius.
¹⁵⁶
Cicero bowed to his captors, leaned his head out of the litter, and bared his neck with his own hands to the legionaries. Herennius botched the execution. It took him three saw cuts to finally decapitate Cicero.
¹⁵⁷
His hands – as much tools of the orator’s trade as his voice – were also hacked off. They were taken to Rome where Antonius ordered the severed head and hands to be placed above the bronze beaks of captured ships that decorated the
Rostra
from where the orator had often spoken.
¹⁵⁸