um_ with the
right to appoint to the magistracies and their acts were to be valid
without the approval of the Senate. Furthermore, they divided among
themselves the western provinces; Antony received those previously
assigned to him, Lepidus took the Spains and Narbonese Gaul; while to
Octavian fell Sardinia, Sicily and Africa. Octavian was to resign his
consulship, but in the next year to be joint commander with Antony in a
campaign against the republican armies in the East while Lepidus protected
their interests in Rome. The triumvirate was legalized by a tribunician
law (the _lex Titia_) of 27 November, 43, and its members formally entered
upon office on the first of January following. Unlike the secret coalition
of Pompey, Crassus and Caesar, the present one constituted a commission
clothed with almost supreme public powers.

*Proscriptions.* The formation of the coalition was followed by the
proscription of the enemies of the triumvirs, partly for the sake of
vengeance but largely to secure money for their troops from the
confiscation of the properties of the proscribed. Among the chief victims
was Cicero, whose death Antony demanded. He died with courage for the sake
of the republican ideal to which he was devoted, but it must be recognized
that this devotion was to the cause of a corrupt aristocracy, whose crimes
he refused to share, although he forced himself to condone and justify
them. The exactions of the triumvirs did not end with the confiscation of
the goods of the proscribed; special taxes were laid upon the propertied
classes in Italy and eighteen of the most flourishing Italian
municipalities were marked out as sites for colonies of veterans.

*Divus Julius.* In 42 B. C. Octavian dedicated a temple to Julius Caesar
in the forum where his body had been burned. Later by a special law Caesar
was elevated among the gods of the Roman state with the name of Divus
Julius. Meanwhile Octavian had found difficulty in occupying his allotted
provinces. Africa was eventually conquered by one of his lieutenants, but
Sextus Pompey, who controlled the sea, had occupied Sardinia and Sicily.
His forces were augmented by many of the proscribed and by adventurers of
all sorts, and Octavian could not dislodge him before setting out against
Brutus and Cassius.

*Philippi, 42 B. C.* These republican generals had raised an army of
80,000 troops, in addition to allied contingents, and taken up a position
in Thrace to await th