Octavian ignores Antony's right to settle his own veterans in Italy and recruit fresh troops, discharging many legionaries and founding settlements for them.

His deliberate rivalry with Antony for the eventual mastership of the Roman world becomes increasingly apparent.

Octavian's marriage two years earlier to Livia Drusilla had begun to win over some of the nobles who had previously been Antony's supporters.

Octavian also launches elaborate religious and patriotic publicity, centering on the classical god of order, Apollo, in contrast to Antony's more un-Roman patron, Dionysus (Bacchus).

In addition, Octavian has started to prefix his name with the designation “Imperator,” to suggest that he is the commander par excellence; and now, although he continues to use his triumviral powers, he omits all reference to them from his coins, gradually concentrating on the plain, emotive name “Caesar Son of a God.”