This immediately faced him with a grating predicament; he now sought to fit his own position, as sole remaining member of the triumvirate, with the old republican system. He had several problems, one of which was that all through the civil war with Antony he had portrayed Antony to be a tyrant and a ruthless man who wanted to rule Rome for himself, as a dictator. This was potentially what he had now become, and so he had several possibilities; to retire, which could lead to another civil war, and he was too ambitious to do this; or to acquire total autocratic power, and be open to the same fate as Julius Caesar. In...