DIO’S ROMAN HISTORY

51

The following is contained in the Fifty-first of Dio’s Rome: 

How Caesar after his victory at Actium transacted business requiring immediate attention (chapters 1-4).

About Antony and Cleopatra and their movements after the defeat (chapters 5-8).

How Antony, defeated in Egypt, killed himself (chapters 9-14).

How Caesar subdued Egypt (chapters 15-18).

How Caesar came to Rome and conducted a triumph (chapters 19-21).

How the Curia Julia was dedicated (chapter 22).

How Moesia was reduced (chapters 23-27).

Duration of time the remainder of the consulships of Caesar (3rd) and M. Valerius Corvinus Messala, together with two additional years, in which there were the following magistrates here enumerated: 

Caesar (IV), M. Licinius M.F.  Crassus. (B.C. 30 = a. u. 724.)

Caesar (V), Sextus Apuleius Sexti F. (B.C. 29 = a. u. 725.)

(BOOK 51, BOISSEVAIN.)

[B.C. 31 (a. u. 723)]

[-1-] Such was the naval battle which occurred between them on the second of September.  I have not elsewhere used a like expression, not being in the habit of giving precise dates, but I do it here because then for the first time Caesar alone held the entire power.  Consequently the enumeration of the years of his supremacy starts from precisely that day.  And before it had gone he set up as an offering to Apollo of Actium a trireme, a four-banked ship, and so on up to one of ten banks, from the captive vessels; and he built a larger temple.  He also instituted a quinquennial musical and gymnastic contest involving horseracing,—­a “sacred” festival, as they call all which include distribution of food,—­and entitled it Actia.  Further, by gathering some settlers and ousting others who dwelt nearby from their homes, he founded a city on the site of the camp and named it Nicopolis.[67] On the spot where he had had his tent he laid a foundation of square stones, and put there a shrine of Apollo open to the sky, adorning it with the captured beaks.

But this was done later.  At the time he despatched one division of the ships to pursue Antony and Cleopatra; so these followed in their wake, but as it seemed impossible to overtake the fugitives they returned.  With his remaining vessels he took the enemy’s ramparts, where no one opposed him because of small numbers, and then overtook and without a battle got possession of the other army which was retreating into Macedonia.  Various important contingents had already made their escape, the Romans to Antony and the rest of the allies to their homes.  The latter moreover evinced no further hostility to Caesar, but both they and all the peoples who had formerly belonged to Rome remained quiet, and some at once and others later made terms.  Caesar now proceeded to teach the cities a lesson by levying money and taking away