ABSTRACT
It is to Octavian's credit, and a tribute to his cautious common sense, that on receiving the news of Caesar's assassination he did not march into Italy at the head of the Macedonian legions, as some of his colleagues at Apollonia allegedly urged him to do. The officers and men were ready to follow him if he so commanded, but he declined the offer. He had decided to return home immediately, possibly in some trepidation since he could not know for certain the exact circumstances in Rome. The messenger sent by his mother had left the city immediately after the murder of Caesar; anything could have happened in the interval, and even now the situation could be steadily worsening day by day. There was every possibility that Octavian and his friends may have been in some personal, physical danger from any one of several sources, most especially if the conspirators were in power and had determined to eradicate all Caesar's most prominent allies and family members by proscriptions.1
