dangerous to one now practically a prince—uncontaminated by the grosser vices of Rome. Stories to the contrary, afterwards spread abroad by his enemies, are of the most unsubstantial and untrustworthy kind.
But though he seems to have quietly submitted to this tutelage, he soon conceived an ardent desire to share in the activities of his great-uncle Cæsar had been very
Wishes to go to
Africa with
Cæsar.
little at Rome since the beginning of the civil war. A few days in March, b.c. 49, thirteen days in December of the same year, were all that he had spent in the city. He was absent during the whole of his consulship (b.c. 48) till
September, b.c. 47. On his return from
Alexandria in that month, he stayed barely three months at Rome. On the 19th of December he was at Lilybæum, on his way to Africa to attack the surviving Pompeians. Octavius longed to go with him, and Cæsar was willing to take him. But his health was not good, and his mother set herself against it. The Dictator might no doubt have insisted, but he saw that the boy was not fit to face the fatigues of a campaign. Octavius submitted, quietly biding his time. He was rewarded by finding himself high in his great-uncle’s favour when he returned in b.c. 46 after the victory of Thapsus. He was admitted to share his triple triumph, riding in a chariot immediately behind
that of the imperator, dressed in military uniform as though he had actually been engaged.
He found, moreover, that he had sufficient interest with Cæsar to obtain pardon for the brother of his friend Agrippa, taken prisoner in the Pompeian army in Africa. This first use of his influence made a good impression, without weakening his great-uncle’s affection for him. Though Cæsar did not formally adopt him,[1] he treated him openly as
- ↑ Octavius was sui iuris, his father being dead; his adoption therefore required the formal passing of a lex curiata. Now the opposition, supported by Antony, against this formality being carried out was one of the grounds of Octavian’s quarrel with him in b.c. 44-3, and the completion of it was one of the first things secured by Octavian on his entrance into Rome in August, b.c. 43 [Appian, b. c. iii. 94; Dio, 45, 5]. This seems
