Octavian's Rome (Emperor Edition)

Shortly before his death, Julius Caesar adopted Octavian as his son and heir. The Senate had little interest in observing the dead dictator’s will, but when Mark Antony’s anger and thirst for power boiled over into a direct attack on Brutus, the Senate took note of Octavian’s popularity with his father’s troops, and empowered him with the legal authority to intervene.

When the Senate subsequently tried to put his Legions into the hands of Caesar’s killers, they didn’t account for the veterans’ loyalty to Octavian, however. Instead, they backed his seizure of Rome and forced through a series of edicts to outlaw his father’s killers, reward the troops and proclaim him Consul. From there, Octavian met with Mark Antony and Lepidus; a meeting which resulted in the formation of a three-way dictatorship, now known as the Second Triumvirate.

Though the lands he acquired emphasised his junior status, it was Octavian who marched, with Mark Antony, on Caesar’s killers Brutus and Cassius in the east. Victory at Philippi legitimised the Triumvirate and led to a new distribution of territory from which Octavian became much better off, at the passive Lepidus’ expense.

These new territories provide ample resource to feed and fund Octavian’s loyal veterans, and his control of Rome – with a Senate cleansed of dissenters – seemingly places him in a prime position to manipulate Marc Antony and Lepidus to his own ends. The time is now ripe for Octavian to realise Caesar’s legacy for himself!