's influence to the
offices of quaestor, augur, and tribune of the plebs, he supported the
cause of his patron with great energy, and was expelled from the
senate-house when the Civil War broke out. Deputy-governor of Italy
during Caesar's absence in Spain (49), second in command in the decisive
battle of Pharsalus (48), and again deputy-governor of Italy while
Caesar was in Africa (47), Antony was second only to the dictator, and
seized the opportunity of indulging in the most extravagant excesses,
depicted by Cicero in the _Philippics_. In 46 he seems to have taken
offence because Caesar insisted on payment for the property of Pompey
which Antony professedly had purchased, but had in fact simply
appropriated. The estrangement was not of long continuance; for we find
Antony meeting the dictator at Narbo the following year, and rejecting
the suggestion of Trebonius that he should join in the conspiracy that
was already on foot. In 44 he was consul with Caesar, and seconded his
ambition by the famous offer of the crown at the festival of Lupercalia
(February 15). After the murder of Caesar on the 15th of March, Antony
conceived the idea of making himself sole ruler. At first he seemed
disposed to treat the conspirators leniently, but at the same time he so
roused the people against them by the publication of Caesar's will and
by his eloquent funeral oration, that they were obliged to leave the
city. He surrounded himself with a bodyguard of Caesar's veterans, and
forced the senate to transfer to him the province of Cisalpine Gaul,
which was then administered by Decimus Junius Brutus, one of the
conspirators. Brutus refused to surrender the province, and Antony set
out to attack him in October 44, But at this time Octavian, whom Caesar
had adopted as his son, arrived from Illyria, and claimed the
inheritance of his "father." Octavian obtained the support of the senate
and of Cicero; and the veteran troops of the dictator flocked to his
standard. Antony was denounced as a public enemy, and Octavian was
entrusted with the command of the war against him. Antony was defeated
at Mutina (43) where he was besieging Brutus. The consuls Aulus Hirtius
and C. Vibius Pansa, however, fell in the battle, and the senate became
suspicious of Octavian, who, irritated at the refusal of a triumph and
the appointment of Brutus to the command over his head, entered Rome at
the head of his troops, and forced the senate to bestow the consulship