ern
Gaul, and C. Asinius Pollio in Southern Spain. Sext. Pompeius had made
good his ground in the latter country, and had almost expelled Pollio
from Baetica. Plancus and Pollio, both friends and favorites of Caesar,
had as yet declared neither for Antony nor Octavius. If they would
declare for the senate, Lepidus, a feeble and fickle man, might desert
Antony; or if Octavius would join with Dec. Brutus, and pursue him,
Antony might not be able to escape from Italy at all. But these
political combinations failed. Plancus and Pollio stood aloof, waiting
for the course of events. Dec. Brutus was not strong enough to pursue
Antony by himself, and Octavius was unwilling, perhaps unable, to unite
the veterans of Caesar with troops commanded by one of Caesar's murderers.
And so it happened that Antony effected his retreat across the Alps, but
not without extreme hardships, which he bore in common with the meanest
soldier. It was at such times that his good qualities always showed
themselves, and his gallant endurance of misery endeared him to every
man under his command. On his arrival in Narbonnese Gaul he met Lepidus
at Forum Julii (Frejus), and here the two commanders agreed on a plan of
operations.

The conduct of Octavius gave rise to grave suspicions. It was even said
that the consuls had been killed by his agents. Cicero, who had hitherto
maintained his cause, was silent. He had delivered his _Fourteenth_ and
last _Philippic_ on the news of the first victory gained by Hirtius. But
now he talked in private of "removing" the boy of whom he had hoped to
make a tool. Octavius, however, had taken his part, and was not to be
removed. Secretly he entered into negotiations with Antony. After some
vain efforts on the part of the senate to thwart him, he appeared in the
Campus Martius with his legions. Cicero and most of the senators
disappeared, and the fickle populace greeted the young heir of Caesar
with applause. Though he was not yet twenty he demanded the consulship,
having been previously relieved from the provisions of the _Lex Annalis_
by a decree of the senate, and he was elected to the first office in the
State, with his cousin, Q. Pedius.[80]

[Footnote 80: Pedius was son of Caesar's second sister, Julia minor, and
therefore first cousin (once removed) to Octavius.]

A curiate law passed, by which Octavius was adopted into the patrician
gens of the Julii, and was put into legal possession of the name which
he had a