Octavia the Younger

Octavian's soldiers at Perusia during the war use sling bullets inscribed with insults directed at Fulvia personally and Octavian writes a vulgar epigram directed at her in 40 BCE.

The siege at Perusia lasts two months before Octavian starves Lucius into surrender in February.

The number of lead bullets used by slingers found in and around the city, illustrate its end: the city is burnt with the exception of the temples of Vulcan and Juno—the massive Etruscan terrace-walls are nearly impervious—and the town, with the territory for a mile round, is allowed to be occupied by whoever chooses.

Some of the refugees run away toward Gauls to escape Octavian.

(A local history said they were the founders of Perouges en Dauphiné Province.)

Rebuilding begins immediately, as seen in several bases inscribed Augusta sacr(um) Perusia restituta.

Luke Antony and his army escape destruction, however, due to his kinship with his brother, the strongman of the East, and he is sent by Octavian to Spain as governor.

Nothing is known of the circumstances or date of his death.

Cicero, in his Philippics, leaves a highly unfavorable view of his character.

Antony sends Octavia back to Italy from Corcyra (modern Corfu, or Kérkira).

Mark Antony and Octavian are heirs to the military-political organization built by the murdered dictator Julius Caesar.

Rome’s ruling body, the triumvirate, consisting of Octavian, Antony, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, had expired on the last day of 33 BCE; it is not renewed.

Another civil war is beginning.

A propaganda war is fought during 33 and 32 BCE in the political arena of Rome, with accusations flying between sides.

Antony, residing in Egypt with Queen Cleopatra VII, divorces Octavia and accuses Octavian of being a social upstart, of usurping power, and of forging the adoption papers by Caesar.

Octavian responds with treason charges: of illegally keeping provinces that should be given to other men by lots, as is Rome's tradition, and of starting wars against foreign nations (Armenia and Parthia) without the consent of the Senate.

Antony is also held responsible for Sextus Pompeius' execution with no trial.

The Senate in 32 BCE deprives him of his prospective consulate for the following year and declares war against Cleopatra—not Antony, because Octavian has no wish to advertise his role in perpetuating Rome's internecine bloodshed.

Both sides mobilize in 32 for war on land and sea.

Both consuls, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Gaius Sosius, and a third of the Senate, abandon Rome to meet Antony and Cleopatra in Ephesus, to which the couple in the winter of 32—31 sail their newly assembled army and fleet.

The consuls Ahenobarbus and Sosius, having departed Rome for Antony’s headquarters, have brought with them numerous Roman senators, probably more than two hundred.

Ahenobarbus, finding Cleopatra with Antony, endeavors, in vain, to obtain her removal from the army.

Antony, amid a virulent exchange of propaganda, divorces the deserted Octavia in 32 BCE to marry Cleopatra, purportedly willing his possessions to her and her children by Caesar.

When two of Antony’s able ministers, Munatius Plancus and Marcus Titius, desert their client for Octavian in the autumn of 32 BCE, he obtains the information he needs to confirm with the Senate all the accusations he has made against Antony.

By storming the sanctuary of the Vestal Virgins, Octavian forces their chief priestess to hand over Antony's secret will (of dubious though possible authenticity), deposited there for safekeeping, which would have given away Roman-conquered territories as kingdoms for his sons to rule, together with plans to build a tomb in Alexandria for him and his queen to reside upon their deaths.

In late 32 BCE, Octavian abrogates Antony’s titles and obtains from a truncated Senate the annulment of Antony's powers as triumvir, and a declaration of war against Cleopatra.

Hatred for Antony, fanned by Octavian, sweeps through Italy, and Octavian plays this emotional card to have all the peoples in Italy and the western provinces swear an oath of fealty to him, each leader inducing the populations under his control to swear formal oaths of allegiance to his own cause.

The majority of the senators still side with Antony, as do both consuls.