Conflict has become unavoidable after months of…
April 43 BCE
Conflict has become unavoidable after months of negotiations between the Senate and Antony have done little to settle the questions of power and government after Caesar's assassination.
Antony has Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus confined in position around Mutina (modern Modena), just south of the Padus (Po) River on the via Aemilia.
Pansa is sent north from Rome to link with Hirtius and the untested Octavian, bringing four legions of recruits in order to provide Brutus with aid.
Antony, seizing the central position, hopes to deal with the enemy in piecemeal fashion, destroying the columns one at a time.
Antony's legions (II and XXXV) collide with those of Pansa on April 14 in the village of Forum Gallorum (perhaps near modern day Castelfranco Emilia).
Pansa's troops are routed and the general mortally wounded.
Jubilant, Antony calls off the pursuit of the broken army but is then astonished to see Hirtius crashing into his own exhausted ranks, taking two Roman eagles and sixty standards.
The victory is turned into a disaster.
Antony with his cavalry pulls back to his camp, having lost the initiative and the battle.
Another conflict takes place six days later, at Mutina.
Octavian's forces are now present and fight on the side of the remaining consul, Hirtius.
Antony is defeated again, and Hirtius himself is killed in the attack on Antony's camp, leaving the army and republic leaderless.
Octavian recovers his body and according to Suetonius, "in the thick of the fight, when the eagle-bearer of his legion was sorely wounded, he shouldered the eagle and carried it for some time."
And now with a pro-praetorian imperium, he gains the deceased consul's legions.
Antony is forced to retreat into Narbonensis, the southern part of Transalpine Gaul.