of
such indications of character. After the subjugation of Spain, while
Caesar was meditating an expedition against the Dacians and Parthians, he
was sent before him to Apollonia, where he applied himself to his
studies; until receiving intelligence that his uncle was murdered, and
that he was appointed his heir, he hesitated for some time whether he
should call to his aid the legions stationed in the neighbourhood; but he
abandoned the design as rash and premature. However, returning to Rome,
he took possession of his inheritance, although his mother was
apprehensive that such a measure might be attended with danger, and his
step-father, Marcius Philippus, a man of consular rank, very earnestly
dissuaded him from it. From this time, collecting together a strong
military force, he first held the government in conjunction with Mark
Antony and Marcus Lepidus, then with Antony only, for nearly twelve
years, and at last in his own hands during a period of four and forty.

IX. Having thus given a very short summary of his life, I shall
prosecute the several parts of it, not in order of time, but arranging
his acts into distinct classes, for the sake of (76) perspicuity. He was
engaged in five civil wars, namely those of Modena, Philippi, Perugia,
Sicily, and Actium; the first and last of which were against Antony, and
the second against Brutus and Cassius; the third against Lucius Antonius,
the triumvir's brother, and the fourth against Sextus Pompeius, the son
of Cneius Pompeius.

X. The motive which gave rise to all these wars was the opinion he
entertained that both his honour and interest were concerned in revenging
the murder of his uncle, and maintaining the state of affairs he had
established. Immediately after his return from Apollonia, he formed the
design of taking forcible and unexpected measures against Brutus and
Cassius; but they having foreseen the danger and made their escape, he
resolved to proceed against them by an appeal to the laws in their
absence, and impeach them for the murder. In the mean time, those whose
province it was to prepare the sports in honour of Caesar's last victory
in the civil war, not daring to do it, he undertook it himself. And that
he might carry into effect his other designs with greater authority, he
declared himself a candidate in the room of a tribune of the people who
happened to die at that time, although he was of a patrician family, and
had not yet been in the sen