had divided the management of most of them, and nominally
considered that the rest belonged to them in common, though in reality
they endeavored to appropriate each interest as fast as either was able
to gain any advantage over the other. Sextus had now perished, the
Armenian king had been captured, the parties hostile to Caesar were
silent, the Parthians showed no signs of restlessness, and so after this
they turned openly against each other and the people became entirely
enslaved. The causes for the war, or the pretexts, were as follows.
Antony charged against Caesar that he had removed Lepidus from his
position, and had taken possession of his territory and the troops
of both him and Sextus, which ought to have been common property. He
demanded the half of these as well as the half of the soldiers that had
been levied in the parts of Italy which belonged to both of them. Caesar's
charge against him was that he was holding Egypt and other countries that
he had not drawn by lot, had killed Sextus (whom he would willingly have
spared, he said), and by deceiving and binding the Armenian king had
caused much ill repute to attach to the Roman people. He, too, demanded
half of the spoils, and above all reproached him with Cleopatra and the
children of hers which he had seen fit to regard as his own, the gifts
bestowed upon them, and particularly that he called the boy such a name
as Caesarion and placed him in the family of Caesar. [-2-] These were their
mutual charges; and to a certain extent mutual rejoinders were made, some
sent by letter to each other and others given to the public, by Caesar
orally, by Antony in writing. On this pretext also they kept constantly
sending envoys back and forth, wishing to appear as far as possible
justified in the complaints they made and to reconnoitre each other's
position at the same time.

[B.C. 32 (_a. u._ 722)]

Meanwhile they were collecting money avowedly for some different purpose
and were making all other preparations for war as if against other
persons, until the time that Gnaeus Domitius and Gaius Sosius, both
belonging to Antony's party, became consuls. Then they made no further
concealment, but admitted their alienation outright. It happened in the
following way.

Domitius did not openly attempt any radical measures, since he had had
the experience of many calamities. Sosius, however, had never experienced
such evils, and so on the very first day of the month he spoke at