he people
whom he served.

These complicated disasters roused Antony from his lethargy. He sailed
to Tyre, intending to take the field against the Parthians; but the
season was too far advanced, and he therefore crossed the AEgean to
Athens, where he found Fulvia and his brother, accompanied by Pollio,
Plancus, and others, all discontented with Octavian's government.
Octavian was absent in Gaul, and their representation of the state of
Italy encouraged him to make another attempt. Late in the year (41)
Antony formed a league with Sext. Pompeius; and while that chief
blockaded Thurii and Consentia, Antony assailed Brundusium. Agrippa was
preparing to meet this new combination; and a fresh civil war was
imminent. But the soldiery was weary of war: both armies compelled their
leaders to make pacific overtures, and the new year was ushered in by a
general peace, which was rendered easier by the death of Fulvia. Antony
and Octavian renewed their professions of amity, and entered Rome
together in joint ovation to celebrate the restoration of peace. They
now made a third division of the provinces, by which Scodra (Scutari) in
Illyricum was fixed as the boundary of the West and East; Lepidus was
still left in possession of Africa. It was further agreed that Octavian
was to drive Sext. Pompeius, lately the ally of Antony, out of Sicily;
while Antony renewed his pledges to recover the standards of Crassus
from the Parthians. The new compact was sealed by the marriage of Antony
with Octavia, his colleague's sister, a virtuous and beautiful lady,
worthy of a better consort. These auspicious events were celebrated by
the lofty verse of Vergil's _Fourth Eclogue_.

Sext. Pompeius had reason to complain. By the peace of Brundusium he was
abandoned by his late friend to Octavian. He was not a man to brook
ungenerous treatment. Of late years his possession of Sicily had given
him command of the Roman corn market. During the winter which followed
the peace of Brundusium (B.C. 40-39), Sextus blockaded Italy so closely
that Rome was threatened with a positive dearth. Riots arose; the
triumvirs were pelted with stones in the Forum, and they deemed it
prudent to temporize by inviting Pompey to enter their league. He met
them at Misenum, and the two chiefs went on board his ship to settle the
terms of alliance. It is said that one of his chief officers, a Greek
named Menas or Menodorus, suggested to him the expediency of putting to
sea with