1
Primary Sources relevant to Essay 1
Main Narrative Sources for the Triumviral Period:
Look up sections relevant to your question. We have a trial subscription to the online Loebs through
the library: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/using/practicalinfo/eaccess/trials
The texts are also available in translations of varying quality online.
Appian, Civil Wars
Bk 2.106 – 154 (Caesar as dictator; the assassination; Caesar’s funeral; Caesar’s will)
3.1 – 8 (Antonius’ actions; Brutus and Cassius’ response)
3.9 – 48 (introduction of Octavian; conflict with Antonius; death of Trebatius; Antonius and
Octavian’s attempts to gather armies)
3.49 – 76 (Decimus Brutus in Mutina; senatorial debate concerning war; Battle of Mutina)
3.77 – 79 (Cassius & events in Syria; Brutus & Macedonia)
3.80 – 98 (Octavian in Italy; reconciliation of Antonius and Lepidus; Octavian sues for the
consulship; trial of the assassins; death of Decimus)
4.1 – 51 (triumvirate; proscription)
4.52 – 56 (Cornificius and Sextius fight over Africa)
4.57 – 82 (Brutus and Cassius in the east; Cassius and Rhodes; Brutus in Lycia)
4.83 – 86 (Sextus in Spain, Sicily)
4.87 – 138 (Arrival of both sides in Greece; Battles of Philippi; death of Brutus)
5.1 – 11 (Aftermath of battle; Antonius in the east; Cleopatra)
5.12 – 49 (Octavian in Rome; Negotiations of Lucius Antonius and Octavian; Perusine War)
5.50 – 66 (Manoeuvres of Antonius’ friends, of Octavian; death of Fulvia; Pact of Brundisium)
5.67 – 74 (Famine; Pact of Misenum)
5.75 – 76 (Antonius in Greece)
5.77 – 132 (War restarted between Octavian and Sextus; Octavian’s defeats; Meeting of
Antonius and Octavian at Tarentum; Naval victory of Agrippa; Lepidus’ defeat)
5.133 – 45 (Pompeius in the east; death)
Cassius Dio, Roman History
Bk 44.1 – 11 (Honours for Caesar)
44.12 – 18 (Conspiracy)
44.19 – 22 (Assassination)
44.23 – 34 (Senate meeting)
44.35 – 53 (Caesar’s funeral)
45.1 – 9 (Introduction of Octavian)
45.10 (Sextus)
45.11 – 17 (Conflict between Octavian and Antonius)
45.18 – 47 (Speech of Cicero against Antonius)
46.1 – 28 (Speech of Calenus for Antonius against Cicero)
46.29 – 38 (Battle of Mutina)
46.39 – 49 (Octavian’s march on Rome, consulship, trial of assassins)
46.50 – 56 (the formation of the Triumvirate)
47.1 – 19 (Proscriptions)
47.20 – 36 (Brutus and Cassius in the east)
2
47.37 – 49 (Battles of Philippi)
48.1 – 15 (Perusine War)
48.16 – 20 (Sextus in Sicily)
48.21 – 23 (Events in Africa)
48.24 – 27 (Parthians, Antonius in the east)
48.28 – 30 (Pact of Brundisium)
48.31 – 35 (Rioting in Rome)
48.36 – 38 (Treaty of Misenum)
48.39 – 41 (Ventidius and the Parthians; Calvinus’ governorship in Spain; Marriage of
Octavian and Livia)
48.45 – 54 (Outbreak of war between Octavian and Sextus; conference of Tarentum)
49.1 – 18 (Octavian’s victory over Sextus, over Lepidus)
49.19 – 33 (Ventidius and the Parthians, Antonius and the Parthians)
49.34 – 38 (Octavian’s campaign in Illyricum)
49.39 – 41 (Antonius and the death of Artavasdes; donations of Alexandria)
49.42 – 44 (Events at Rome; Agrippa’s aedileship; Antonius in the east)
50.1 – 10 (Breakdown of alliance between Octavian and Antonius)
50.11 – 35 (Preparations for war; speeches before battle; Battle of Actium)
51.1 – 10 (Events after the battle; Antonius and Cleopatra flee to Egypt; suicide of Antonius)
51.11 – 18 (Cleopatra’s negotiation with Octavian, death; Octavian in Alexandria)
51.19 – 22 (Events at Rome; Octavian in Greece; Triple triumph)
51.23 – 27 (Crassus against the Bastarnae)
52.1 – 40 (Speeches of Agrippa and Maecenas on the State)
52.41 – 43 (Octavian as Imperator; purge of the senate)
53.1 – 16 (Political settlement of 27 BC; arrangements for provinces; name ‘Augustus’)
Plutarch, Life of Antonius
1 – 11 (Ancestry; early career)
12 – 18 (Death of Caesar; Mutina)
19 – 22 (Triumvirate; proscriptions; Battle of Philippi)
23 – 29 (Antonius in the east)
30 – 32 (Perusine War; Pact of Brundisium; Treaty of Misenum)
33 – 52 (Preparations and Parthian campaign)
53 – 54 (Octavia v. Cleopatra)
55 – 60 (Accusations of Octavian and Antonius against each other; Preparations for war)
61 – 68 (War of Actium)
69 – 77 (Antonius in Egypt; Negotiations; Battle; Death of Antonius)
78 – 87 (Cleopatra; Octavian in Alexandria; Antonius’ descendants)
Velleius Paterculus
2.56 – 89 (Triumviral narrative)
Suetonius, Life of Augustus
9 – 17 (Triumviral narrative)
26 – 27 (First consulship of Octavian, Triumvir)
3
Additional Sources
The list is not exhaustive: choose the sources that are most relevant to your approach to the
question, and supplement these with other sources you have found through your wider reading.
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Q. 4.
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Q. 5.
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Cicero, Philippics, 10.7-15, 23-26; 11.26-40.
Selection of Cicero’s letters, see especially those written by Brutus, Cassius or their allies
themselves (in bold):1
Cicero, Letters to Brutus, 2.3.5 (SB 2.5), 2.4.4 (SB 4.4), 2.5.1-2, 5 (SB 5.1-2, 5), 1.2a
(SB 6), 1.4 (SB 10), 1.4a.1-3 (SB 11.1-3), 1.10 (SB 17), 1.14.2 (SB 22.2), 1.15.3-12 (SB
23.3-12).
Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 14.1 (SB 355), 14.4 (SB 358), 14.5.2-3 (SB 359.2-3), 14.6 (SB
360), 14.10.1 (SB 364.1), 14.12.1-2 (SB 366.1-2), 14.13.2-3 (SB 367.2-3), 14.14.2-3
(SB 368.2-3), 14.19.1 (SB 372.1), 15.9.1 (SB 387.1), 15.11.1-2 (SB 389.1-2), 16.7.1 (SB
415.1), 16.8 (SB 418), 16.9 (SB 419).
Cicero, Letters to his Friends, 11.1 (SB 325), 12.1 (SB 327), 11.2 (SB 329), 11.3 (SB
336), 11.7 (SB 354), 12.12 (SB 387), 12.14.6-7 (SB 405.6-7), 10.24.4-8 (SB 428.4-8).
Plutarch, Life of Brutus
Virgil, Eclogue 4 = LACTOR G2 (Also potentially Ecl. 1 = LACTOR G1)
Propertius 1.21, 1.22 = LACTOR G13, G14.
Fasti Consulares = Inscriptiones Italiae 13.1 = LACTOR section B [only from 31 BC]. (esp. 34
BC, 32, 22, 19, 16)
Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 14.217-67, 271-76, 280, 337-491; 15.8-10, 74-79, 88-95, 104-5,
121, 161-2, 183-201.
Strabo Geography 16.2.46
Documents from Reynolds, J. 1982. Aphrodisias and Rome, ch. 3.
Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 14.217-67, 271-76, 301-29, 439-47, 487-91; 15.74-79, 88-95,
104-5.
Documents from Reynolds, J. 1982. Aphrodisias and Rome, ch. 3.
Sherk, R.K., Rome and the Greek East to the Death of Augustus, docs 85, 88-90.
Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 14.10.3 (SB 364.3), 14.12.2 (SB 366.2), 16.8 (SB418), 16.9 (SB 419),
16.11.6 (SB 420.6), 16.15.3 (SB 426.3).
Cicero, Letters to his Friends, 11.20 (SB 401), 10.24.4-8 (SB 428.4-8),
Cicero, Philippics, 3.3-5, 37-39; 4.2-4; 5.42-51; 13.24, 46; 14.24-25, 28, 36.
Aureus of 43 BC: RRC 490/2 = LACTOR H2. Aureus of 28 BC: BM CM 1995.4-1.1 = LACTOR
H18. Aureus of 27 BC: RIC Augustus 277 = LACTOR H21.
Pliny NH 2.94 = LACTOR H3.
Livy Periochae (Summaries) 133 = LACTOR D2
Res Gestae – very carefully!
The first set of numbers is those of the traditional (vulgate) edition, the second set of numbers with SB in
brackets is Shackleton-Bailey’s numbering system, which is the order used in the most recent Loeb edition.