Mark Antony had been drifting apart from…
May 44 BCE
Mark Antony had been drifting apart from Caesar, but now capitalizes on the grief of the Roman mob and threatens to unleash them on the Optimates, perhaps with the intent of taking control of Rome himself.
He gradually gains control of the city and the official machinery, and the “liberators” withdraw to the East.
However, Octavian, receiving news of his inheritance, returns in May from his academic and military studies in Apollonia.
To make a successful entry into the echelons of the Roman political hierarchy, Octavian cannot rely on his limited funds.
After a warm welcome by Caesar's soldiers at Brundisium, Octavian demands a portion of the funds that had been allotted by Caesar for the intended war against Parthia.
This amounts to seven hundred million sesterces stored at Brundisium, the staging ground in Italy for military operations in the east.
(A later senatorial investigation into the disappearance of the public funds will make no action against Octavian, since he had subsequently used that money to raise troops against the Senate's arch enemy, Mark Antony.)
Octavian makes another bold move when he appropriates the annual tribute that had been sent from Rome's Near Eastern province to Italy without any official permission to do so.
Octavian begins to bolster his personal forces with Caesar's veteran legionaries and troops designated for the Parthian war, gathering support by emphasizing his status as heir to Caesar.
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