ends.  He, too, acted in a blundering and dangerous way; he was only just past boyhood,—­eighteen years of age,—­and saw that the succession to the inheritance and the family was sure to provoke jealousy and censure:  yet he started in pursuit of objects that had led to Caesar’s murder, and no punishment befell him, and he feared neither the assassins nor Lepidus and Antony.  Yet he was not thought to have planned poorly, because he became successful.  Heaven, however, indicated not obscurely all the upheaval that would result from it.  As he was entering Rome a great variegated iris surrounded the whole sun.

[-5-] In this way he that was formerly called Octavius, but already at this time Caesar, and subsequently Augustus, took charge of affairs and settled them and brought them to a successful close more vigourously than any mature man, more prudently than any graybeard.  First he entered the city as if for the sole purpose of succeeding to the inheritance, and as a private citizen with only a few attendants, without any ostentation.  Still later he did not utter any threat against any one nor show that he was displeased at what had occurred and would take vengeance for it.  So far from demanding of Antony any of the money that he had previously plundered, he actually paid court to him although he was insulted and wronged by him.  Among the other injuries that Antony did him by both word and deed was his action when the lex curiata was proposed, according to which the transfer of Octavius into Caesar’s family was to take place:  Antony himself, of course, was active to have it passed, but through some tribunes he secured its postponement in order that the young man being not yet Caesar’s child according to law might not meddle with the property and might be weaker in all other ways. [-6-] Caesar was restive under this treatment, but as he was unable to speak his mind freely he bore it until he had won over the crowd, by whose members he understood his father had been raised to honor.  He knew that they were angry at the latter’s death and hoped they would be enthusiastic over him as his son and perceived that they hated Antony on account of his having been master of the horse and also for his failure to punish the murderers.  Hence he undertook to become tribune as a starting point for popular leadership and to secure the power that would result from it; and he accordingly became a candidate for the place of Cinna, which was vacant.  Though hindered by Antony’s clique he did not desist and after using persuasion upon Tiberius Cannutius, a tribune, he was by him brought before the populace.  He took as an excuse the gift bequeathed by Caesar and in his speech touched upon all the important points, promising that he would discharge this debt at once, and gave them cause to hope for much besides.  After this came the festival appointed in honor of the completion of the temple of Venus, which some, while Caesar was alive, had promised to celebrate, but were now holding in, slight regard