Marcus Agrippa: Right-hand Man of Caesar Augustus (9 page)

Once established in the town, Octavius began his military training and he was almost certainly joined by Agrippa during those sessions. From the legions stationed in neighbouring Macedonia, which had been assembled there for the planned Gaetic-Parthian campaign, mounted troops ‘were sent to him by turns for the purpose of drill’, writes Appian, ‘and certain army officers visited him frequently as a relative of Caesar.’
¹⁸²
One of them might have been the
legatus legionis
M. Acilius Glabrio.
¹⁸³
Octavius learned to use his celebrity status with good grace, out of which ‘an acquaintance and good feeling grew up by means of them between himself and the army’.
¹⁸⁴

Between military exercises, there was time for academic study. Apollonia had for several years attracted ambitious young Romans looking for the best masters of rhetoric and declamation. Octavius took Apollodorus of Pergamum on the trip with him from Rome to Apollonia so that he could continue his education.
¹⁸⁵
In their spare time, Agrippa and Octavius relaxed in the coastal city. A curious incident is recorded. In Apollonia there lived a renowned astrologer named Theogenes. We might imagine one friend daring the other to have his fortune told. Suetonius records that Agrippa went first and sat with the fortune-teller in his top floor apartment. The older man studied the younger and predicted ‘great and almost incredible fortunes’ for him.
¹⁸⁶
Agrippa’s boldness contrasted with his friend’s reticence. Octavius made excuses not to follow after his friend out of ‘mixture of shame and fear that he might be found less eminent’, but under the pressure of Agrippa’s continual taunts eventually he relented.
¹⁸⁷
Without identifying who he was, he sat face-to-face with Theogenes. He immediately saw that Octavius was destined for great things. The mystic sprang up and knelt before the young man, offering his profound respects. By his actions in later life Agrippa would show how he really felt about astrologers and charlatans, but at this moment, the boys may have laughed and dismissed the predictions as they left the astrologer’s studio.
¹⁸⁸
Yet events would prove them to be uncannily accurate.

Figure 1. The assassins, who struck down Iulius Caesar with daggers, commemorated their violent deed on a special coin. The fall-out of ‘EID[VS] MAR[TIAS]’, 15 March 44 BCE, transformed M. Agrippa’s life.

The bitter cold of winter gradually receded, and the first signs of spring appeared. He and Agrippa had been in Illyrcium for four – another source says six – months when, one evening, Octavius was approached to receive a freedman just arrived from Rome.
¹⁸⁹
He had travelled as fast as he could under direct instructions of the boy’s mother, Atia. He brought a letter from her. In ‘excitement and dismay’ the man handed over the document.
¹⁹⁰
The young man read it with growing sadness and increasing concern. His great uncle had been murdered.
¹⁹¹
Rome was in chaos.

Now everything would change.

Agrippa’s role over the next three years is imprecise. He lives in the shadow of Octavius and the unfolding story of his rise to power, closely tracking the movements of his friend, and contributing to major decisions as an advisor and confidant.

In late March 44 BCE, Octavius (
plate 5
) did not yet know how he stood to benefit from the will and testament of Iulius Caesar, or indeed if he did at all.
¹
He was not first in line of inheritance, but actually third after the
dictator
’s other great nephews, L. Pinarius and Q. Pedius. Pinarius had done nothing to distinguish himself, whereas Pedius had served with Caesar in the Gallic War as a
legatus legionis
with distinction.
²
He had also been at Pharsalus (48 BCE) and Thapsus (46 BCE), and pursued Pompeius Magnus’ sons to Hispania Citerior, but was unable to engage them decisively.
³
Significantly, however, during his triumph, it was Octavius alone of his extended family who Caesar had permitted to ride in his chariot (
currus
) and bestowed on him military decorations normally given to men who had actually seen action in the campaign.
⁴
He had been on intimate terms with the
dictator
, accompanying him to banquets and theatre productions. As a surviving relative Octavius felt compelled to return to Rome to pay his respects and receive what portion of the estate his great uncle had bequeathed him, no matter how small. With the
dictator
’s death, the planned expedition to Parthia was cancelled indefinitely, and there was now no reason for him and friends, Agrippa and Salvidienus, to remain in Apollonia. Information about the situation in Rome was now reaching him from different sources.
⁵
Octavius was uncertain what to do. The officers of the legion in Macedonia under M. Acilius and men of the cavalry units they had trained with offered their support and suggested he relocate to their camp for his personal safety.
⁶
He turned to those around him for advice. Nikolaos reports that some of his friends – which might mean Agrippa and Salvidienus – urged him to accept the army’s offer and join them and then take them to Italy where they could avenge Caesar’s murder in force.
⁷
However, their friend was torn between that advice and the recommendation of his mother to make a low key return to Rome as a private citizen.
⁸

Octavius finally made up his mind. Overruling his friends and the military advisors, he took the lower profile option. Agrippa packed up his belongings and prepared to depart Apollonia with him; the
rhetor
asked to be allowed to return to his home in Pergamum.
⁹
For the rest their destination was the Italian port of
Brundisium, but uncertain of what awaited them, Octavius prudently sent ahead of him scouts to assess the situation and report back.
¹⁰
News spread quickly around the Adriatic port city that Octavius was leaving. Crowds turned out in large numbers, some to wish him a safe voyage, others urging him to stay among them where everyone could be considered as his friend.
¹¹
The young man was very taken by the affection of the Balkan people. He never forgot their warm support and when his political power enabled him to do so, ‘he conferred on them autonomy and immunity and some other not inconsiderable favors, and made it one of the most fortunate cities’.
¹²
But the mind of Caesar’s heir was made up. The trio of Octavius, Agrippa and Salvidienus could delay no longer. They boarded a ship and set sail for Italy (
map 2
).

Ever cautious, the young men landed, not in Brundisium, but somewhere along the coast of Puglia and went first to the nearby town of Lupiae (Lecce).
¹³
Now back on Italian soil Octavius began to receive new correspondence. Some family members – his mother Atia and stepfather Philippus among them – urged him to renounce his inheritance as it put him in terrible personal peril.
¹⁴
They had underestimated their young relative. ‘He thought that to do so, and
not
to avenge Caesar,’ writes Appian, ‘would be disgraceful’.
¹⁵
In the meantime, the 18-year-old was appalled to learn that, while Antonius had had a large military force available to pursue the assassins, instead he had ‘for the present given up his plan to avenge Caesar’s murder’.
¹⁶
It seemed to Octavius that the assassins, far from being punished for their crime, had literally got away with murder.
¹⁷

Antonius was an experienced soldier and politician and had a much more nuanced plan of action.
¹⁸
On the day of the assassination Antonius had fled the scene of the murder, disguising himself as a slave and rushed to his house fearing he would be next on the murderers’ list.
¹⁹
When he felt confident that he was not at risk, the following day he left the confines of his house and headed for the centre of the city. The self-styled liberators had achieved their stated aim of removing the
dictator
and sought no further conflict. As news of the murder had spread panicked crowds fled from the
Forum
.
²⁰
Their hands still stained crimson with blood, still clasping their daggers, they had retreated to the security of the Capitolinus Hill and recruited gladiators and bodyguards for protection; but now they needed a way out.
²¹
Assassin M. Iunius Brutus came down and spoke from the
Rostra
in the
Forum Romanum
encouraging the people to take back their
libertas
, but when co-conspirator Cinna denounced Caesar, the crowd, which up to that point had listened respectfully, broke into a riot and the two men fled back up the hill.
²²

On 17 March, Cicero, who had taken no part in the murder plot, negotiated a general amnesty.
²³
The conspirators would be officially pardoned and even accorded honours. Cunningly Antonius presented himself as a friend of the liberators and even placed his own son as a hostage in their care as a token of his good faith.
²⁴
Antonius dined with Brutus, his colleague M. Aemilius Lepidus with assassin C. Cassius Longinus.
²⁵
Assured of his peaceful intentions, the conspirators agreed to Antonius’ proposal to pass all of Iulius Caesar’s acts, and to let him speak at the funeral. Next day, the Senate assembled and voted that the conspirators should each be assigned provinces: to Brutus went Crete, to Cassius Cyrenaica, C. Trebonius Asia, L. Tillius (Metellus) Cimber Bithynia, and to D. Iunius Brutus Albinus (no relation to Marcus) was given Gallia Cisalpina.
²⁶
Pompeius Magnus’ son Sextus was recalled and certain exiles were allowed to return.
²⁷
Behind the scenes Antonius had been quietly making sure key people received positions which could advance his own interests. With the agreement of Caesar’s wife Calpurnia, Antonius, who was still legitimate consul for 44 BCE, had taken the
dictator
’s private papers, his decrees and the last testament into his care.
²⁸
He inserted into the unpublished decrees the names of men he wanted in government positions so that when they were announced it appeared that they had been the former deceased consul’s wishes.
²⁹
This way he arranged for his brother Caius to be appointed
praetor urbanus
and Lucius as tribune of the people.
³⁰

Map 2. Agrippa’s Travels 44–40 BCE.

As the executor of Iulius Caesar’s will and estate, Antonius presented the
dictator
’s bloodied and desecrated body in the
Forum Romanum
and gave the speech of his life.
³¹
By the time he had delivered his last words the common people had been swept up into a violent rage.
³²
They rampaged through the centre of the city, setting fire to the Senate House and adjacent market halls.
³³
Dragging out from the buildings anything combustible, they raised a heap at the southern end of the
Forum
, laid the body of Caesar upon the makeshift pyre and set it alight. Witnessing the violent commotion, the conspirators fled the city.
³⁴
In the confusion of events M. Aemilius Lepidus, who, on the day of the assassination had brought his troops into the centre of Rome to restore order, became
Pontifex Maximus
.
³⁵

Meanwhile, Octavius’ group, wary of the reception they might find in Rome, had set off from Lupiae and arrived at his stepfather’s villa in Puteoli near Neapolis (modern Naples) on 18 April.
³⁶
Once settled in, he corresponded with Antonius, Atia and the Senate. By coincidence, the neighbouring villa was owned by Cicero, who was entertaining the consuls designate for 43 BCE, C. Vibius Pansa Caetronianus and A. Hirtius. Octavius promised to be guided by the venerable 62-year-old Cicero in all respects. Cicero was quite taken by the respect he was shown by the younger man.
³⁷
It was likely now that Octavius learned the full details of his inheritance: net of 75
drachmai
to be paid to each man in the city of Rome, he was to receive three quarters of Iulius Caesar’s property. It was an extraordinarily rich legacy. Caesar had instructed that Octavius be posthumously adopted as his son, and to join the
gens Iulia
.
³⁸
The young man would assume the full name of his benefactor and henceforth would be entitled to use the name C. Iulius Caesar.
³⁹
The heir to Caesar’s fortune well knew that name still carried great potency and prestige among large numbers of Romans – not least the men who had served with him during the Gallic Wars – and, in assuming it and the magical aura it bore, his standing would change forever.
⁴⁰
Theogenes’ prediction had come true. As for 20-year-old Agrippa, he must have realized that he was now best friends with one of the most prominent and soon-to-be powerful men in the Roman world and that his fate would be intricately bound to Octavius’.