The Indifferent Monkey

Poor Lepidus

"...[T]he peace with Sextus Pompeius [not Magnus] did not last. Octavian was presented with Sardinia through the defection of one of Pompeius' lieutenants, and planned to invade Sicily, but Pompeius and a storm shattered his fleet and his hopes[.] Octavian's chief diplomatic agent and adviser, the Etruscan Gaius Maecenas, helped to persuade Antony to send reinforcements; Lepidus agreed to bring his legions over from Africa. When the attack was finally launched (1 July 36), Octavian himself was defeated, but Agrippa saved the day. Sicily fell, and Pompeius fled to the East, where Antony's generals hunted him to death. Lepidus thought Sicily should be his and ordered Octavian to leave the island. Octavian, 'though unarmed and dressed in a civilian cloak, bearing nothing but his name' (Velleius ii.80), entered Lepidus' camp, and Lepidus' soldiers came over to him en masse. Velleius omits to mention that Octavian had already been tampering with their loyalty (Appian, Civil Wars, v.124). Lepidus begged for mercy, was magnanimously allowed to retain his property and the office of pontifex maximus, and departed to twenty-four years of inglorious retirement at Circeii, a small town in Latium famous for its oysters."

Experted from Colin Wells, The Roman Empire, 20-21.

posted by The Indifferent Monkey @ 2:03 AM