Several of Caesar's
nearest friends were Epicureans of the Neapolitan bay. Their future
depended wholly upon Caesar. Dolabella was Antony's colleague in that
year's consulship, while Hirtius and Pansa had been chosen consuls for
the following year by Caesar. To add to the shock, the liberators had
been led by a recent convert to the school, Cassius.
The community as a whole was Caesarian, a fact explained not wholly by
Piso's relations to Philodemus and the friendly attitude of so many
followers of Caesar, but also by the consideration that the leading
spirits were Transpadanes: Vergil, Varius and Quintilius, at least. But
at Rome the political struggle soon turned itself into a contest to
decide not whether Caesar's regime should be honored and continued in the
family--Octavius seemed at first too young to be a decisive factor--but
whether Antony would be able to make himself Caesar's successor. When in
July Brutus and Cassius were out-manoeuvered by Antony, and Cicero fled
helplessly from Rome, it was Piso who stepped into the breach, not to
support Brutus and Cassius, but to check the usurpation of Antony. This
gave Cicero a program. In September he entered the lists against Antony;
in December he accepted the support of Octavian who had with astonishing
daring for a youth of eighteen collected a strong army of Caesar's
veterans and placed himself at the service of Cicero and the Senate in
their warfare against Antony.
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