B.C. 40.] TREATY OF BRUNDISIUM. 281 Fulvia at Sicyon removed the chief incentive to Antony's ambition. A new treaty between the triumvirs was negociated by Mæcenas, Pollio, and Cocceius. The whole Roman world, except Africa, which Lepidus was condescendingly permitted to retain, was divided at the Adriatic into an eastern and western empire.* Antony undertook the Parthian War, and Octavian the reduction of Sextus Pompey, whom his late ally sacrificed without a scruple. The consuls were to be chosen alternately from the friends of each triumvir. Their reconciliation was cemented by the union of Antony to Octavia, the sister of Octavius, and the widow of Caius Marcellus. The triumvirs returned to Rome to celebrate the marriage; and the combined charms of a wisdom and virtue worthy of the mother of the Gracchi, with a beauty which confessedly eclipsed that of Cleopatra, seemed to have rescued even Antony from the Egyptian wanton. The Treaty of Brundisium marked the end of the Civil Wars in Italy, and it was accepted as the restoration of peace to the whole world. These hopes found utterance in one of the most remarkable productions of ancient literature, the Fourth Eclogue of Virgil. After all that has been written respecting the wondrous child, under whose auspices the poet anticipates another and a better golden age, we deem the inscription of the poem to Pollio decisive proof of its occasion. The recent or expected birth † of a son to his early patron in his consulship, was seized by the poet as the occasion for a noble Genethliacon, or Birth Song, which, with the poetic licence suited to such an occasion, gives utterance to fervid aspirations that the child may live to see another and a better Golden Age of universal peace all over the world: "All crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail; Returning Justice lift aloft her scale ; Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend, And white-robed Innocence from heaven descend."§ The error into which the commentators have generally fallen consists in the literal identification of the child, whose birth is hailed as the sign of these blessings, with the "beloved offspring of the The boundary was at the town of Scodra, in Illyricum. + Nascenti seems rather to imply the former, v. 9. See v. 3. Surely if the occasion had been the expected birth of M. Marcellus from Octavia, the poem would have been dedicated rather to Octavian than to Pollio. Besides, if Propertius is correct, M. Marcellus was twenty years old at his death in B.C. 23, and therefore three years old in B. C. 40. § The quotation is from Pope's Messiah, a Sacred Eclogue, in Imitation of Virgil's Pollio. In this beautiful piece, the spirit of Virgil's poem is blended, with consummate skill, with the sacred predictions of the reign of the Messiah. gods,"* under whose reign they were to be fulfilled; and the most exquisite beauty of the poem consists in the symbolism, by which the child's infancy, and youth, and manhood, and final apotheosis, suggest their parallels in the advent, the gradual perfection, the stability, and the completed glory of the coming age. Nor does it seem a less narrow mistake to seek, in a positive knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures,† the explanation of those aspirations which may have had a deeper source. No fact is more certain, as we approach the epoch of the advent of the Messiah, than the universal expectation, the "groaning and travailing together of humanity," which waited for a new and better age; and what is there strange in the belief that it should have been given to the poet to utter such a feeling at a crisis that seemed to promise its satisfaction? In this sense it seems to us to be true that "Virgil interpreted the common feelings of his countrymen, and darkly shadowed forth the character of the coming age itself, under the image of an offspring of the gods, a mighty emanation from Jove.” The Roman people, however, were unable to enjoy this restored tranquillity so long as Sextus Pompey remained master of the sea, and cut off their supplies of corn; and their demand that he should be treated with was enforced by riots, in which Octavian and Antony were pelted with stones. Sextus listened to the first overtures, and met the triumvirs at the promontory of Misenum. The conferences and the subsequent festivities were held on board of vessels moored to the quay; and it is said that when the triumvirs were feasting with Sextus Pompey, his admiral, Menodorus, called him aside and asked, "Shall I cut the moorings, and make you master of the Roman world?" To which Pompey replied, "Would that Menodorus could do this without my order: such treachery might well befit him, but not a Pompey." The terms agreed upon were that Sextus should receive Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, and some say Achaia, with a compensation for his father's confiscated property; an amnesty for his followers, excepting only the murderers of Cæsar; and the reward of his soldiers, the slave with freedom, "Cara deûm soboles, magnum Jovis incrementum." The theory that such a knowledge could be obtained from the Sibylline books is not only unsupported, but utterly inconsistent with all we know of that farrago of imposture. Arguments based on plausible coincidences are best tested by extreme cases. Would those who assume Virgil's knowledge of the prophecies of Isaiah infer from the "new wars' (altera bella, &c., vv. 31-36) which are to break for a time the peace of the golden age, his acquaintance with the as yet unuttered prediction of the post-millennian war (Rev. xx. 2, 7-9)? B.C. 38.] VENTIDIUS DEFEATS THE PARTHIANS. 283 and the free with lands. In return he undertook to supply Rome with corn; and the agreement was cemented by the betrothal of the infant son of Marcellus and Octavia (the Marcus Marcellus whose premature death so bitterly grieved Augustus) to the daughter of Sextus. The new confederates parted, to take up arms again within a year; and while Pompey sailed for Sicily, the triumvirs were greeted with acclamations all along the road to Rome, as if they brought back peace and plenty to Italy. They spent the autumn in rewarding their adherents with offices and seats in the Senate: and the practice, already begun by Cæsar, now became habitual, of conferring the nominal dignity of the consulship on occupant after occupant for a few months at a time. Before the end of the year, the triumvirs parted, Octavian to quell some disturbances in Gaul, and Antony to conduct the war against the Parthians. He spent the winter with Octavia at Athens, and neither his frequent revels, nor his affectation of the society of the philosophers, prevented his attending to military affairs with the spirit of Cæsar's old legate. These preparations seemed to be made for conquest, and no longer for defence; for the war against Labienus and the Parthians had been brought to a brilliant decision by Ventidius. Labienus, who had invaded Asia Minor, while the Parthians overran Syria, and had shamelessly proclaimed his league with the common enemy, assuming the surname of Parthicus, with the title of Imperator, was defeated in Cilicia, taken prisoner, and put to death; and Ventidius, advancing into Syria, drove back Pacorus beyond the Euphrates (B.c. 39). The Parthian prince re-crossed the river in the following spring, only to suffer defeat and death on the very anniversary (it was said) of the overthrow of Crassus at Charrhæ. When Antony arrived, all that was left for him to do was to receive the submission of Antiochus, the king of Commagene, who, having aided the Parthian invaders, was now besieged by Ventidius at Samosata. While Ventidius, who had risen from a low station by his own ability, proceeded to the capital to enjoy the first triumph ever claimed over the Parthians, Antony returned to Athens, and there spent the winter (B.c. 38). He had good reason for keeping an eye upon the West; for the naval war had already broken out afresh, and Octavian was hard pressed by Sextus Pompey. Both evidently regarded the treaty of Misenum as a hollow truce. Sextus had declined giving up the places he held on the coast of Italy till Antony should evacuate Achaia; and Octavian, in return, had refused to surrender Menodorus, who had deserted to him with a division of Pompey's navy. Sextus renewed his descents upon the Italian coast, and intercepted the Roman corn-ships, while Octavian was preparing a navy at Ostia and Ravenna. Two battles were fought on the shores of Italy. The Pompeian, Menecrates, attacked Calvisius in the bay of Cumæ, and won an advantage at the cost of his own life. Octavian, who from Rhegium designed to assault Pompey at Messana, was sailing through the straits to rally the squadron of Calvisius, when he was forced to fight Sextus at a disadvantage, and sustained a complete defeat, only saving his life by leaping ashore on a reef (B.c. 38). But while Pompey only improved his victory by vaunting his lordship of the seas and continuing his piratical incursions, Octavian was aided by the skill of Agrippa in organizing new maritime resources. To supply the want of a harbour on the Campanian coast, Agrippa undertook the great work of cutting a canal from the land-locked lake of Avernus to the Lucrine Lake, and of converting the bank of shingle, which divided the latter from the sea, into a breakwater, faced with solid masonry, and pierced with an entrance for large ships. The double port thus formed was called the Julian Harbour (B.c. 37). At the beginning of this struggle, Octavian had summoned his colleague to his aid, and Antony had sailed from Athens to Brundisium. Not finding Octavian there to meet him, he departed, and wrote to insist on an observance of the treaty of Misenum. Now, however, he appeared off Brundisium uninvited, with a fleet of 300 sail; and Octavian was so distrustful of his intentions as to forbid his landing. He sailed round to Tarentum, whither Mæcenas hastened to meet him, accompanied by Horace, who has left a lively account of the journey as far as Brundisium in his well-known Satire. The mediation of Mæcenas, Octavia, and other friends, effected a second reconciliation, which was embodied in the "Treaty of Tarentum." The triumvirate, which had expired at the end of B.C. 38, was renewed for another five years: Antony lent Octavian 130 ships to use against Pompey, and received 20,000 soldiers for the Parthian War. Octavia remained with her brother, as a pledge of Antony's good faith; but this separation broke the only real link between them. It is needless to pursue the details of the war which was resumed against Sextus Pompey in the summer of B.C. 36. Fortune seemed to deny Octavian the naval honours which she reserved for his chief lieutenant. Once his fleet was shattered by a storm, and at another time he was disgracefully defeated. But Agrippa gained a victory over one of Pompey's squadrons, and at last destroyed B.C. 36.] SUPREMACY OF OCTAVIAN. 285 his whole fleet in the straits of Messana, and then received the submission of his army. Sextus fled to the East, in the hope of obtaining the protection of Antony, while his legate, Plennius, arriving with eight legions from Lilybæum, threw himself into Messana. Then followed one of the strangest of those turns of fortune which make this period so complicated. Lepidus, who had joined Agrippa in the siege, accepted the offer of Plennius to surrender the city and divide its treasures with him. The gates were no sooner opened than the Pompeian troops saluted Lepidus as Imperator; and he resolved to hold the island for himself. But when Octavian arrived, and boldly threw himself among the soldiers, they deserted Lepidus as lightly as they had joined him. With contemptuous clemency, Octavian was satisfied with deposing him from the triumvirate, and confining him to the island of Circeii. He was still allowed to bear the title of Chief Pontiff, to which Augustus succeeded on his death in B.C. 13. Sextus Pompey, after some wild adventures in Asia, which it is needless to follow, fell into the hands of one of Antony's lieutenants, and was put to death, whether by Antony's own order is uncertain (B.c. 35). He was the last, not only of the Pompeys surnamed the Great, but also of the old party of the Senate, and the absence of Antony left Octavian the undisputed head of Cæsar's party. But he had now attained to that far higher position, as the impersonation of law and order, which reconciles even good and wise men to a successful usurpation. The reverses he had suffered in the field had not eclipsed his many proofs of courage and of conduct; of his profound statecraft no doubt could be entertained and his recent clemency in victory went far to redeem his early acts of cold-blooded perfidy. The substantial fruit of his victory was felt in the secure supply of food to Rome, and the populace joined with the Senate to welcome him as having proved his worthiness to be the heir of Julius. A festive procession greeted his return to Rome, where he addressed the people assembled outside the walls, assuring them that the civil wars were over, and that peace should be his study for the future. His goodwill was ratified by a large remission of taxation. Content with the modest honour of an ovation for his Sicilian victory, he entered the city on the 13th of November, B. C. 36. The Senate decreed the erection of a rostral column in the Forum,* sur : The Columna Rostrata, so called from its being adorned with the beaks of captured ships, was the proper monument of a naval victory. The earliest example is that erected for the victory of Duilius in the First Punic War |