The Second Triumvirate is officially formed and they begin to formulate and enact a plan of action to defeat Brutus and Cassius in the East. The plan includes many deaths along the way, by means of the dreaded proscriptions. The forces of Octavian and Antony finally converge, however, on Brutus and Cassius in the decisive Battle of Philippi in October of 42 BCE.


This episode covers 42-36 BCE. Octavian and Antony, not so much Lepidus, begin to put the Roman Republic back together. Octavian manages the West and Antony the East. Along the way Marc Antony meets Cleopatra, loses his wife to jealousy and illness, and gets married again to Octavian's sister Octavia. Caesar also deals with the difficulties of settling his veterans, appeasing the people, and a war instigated by Lucius Antonius--Antony's brother. Caesar calls up his good friend Marcus Agrippa to lead his forces and together they take on Sextus Pompey to solidify Octavian's control of the Roman Republic's West.


Octavian and Antony finally go to war. The two sides muster two massive forces and loyalties are split between the two former triumvirs. Octavian has made sure to make all of his actions legal in the lead up to the war, and the war is settled in a bizarre engagement off the coast of western Greece, Actium.


In this episode Octavian Caesar is now atop the Roman world but he is forced to learn how to maintain such a status. As he does so he transforms not only the Roman world but his own personal image. Thus he becomes Augustus Caesar in 27 BCE.


This episode covers the imperial reign of Augustus. Including how he managed the provinces, dealt with Republican problems, managed the economy, looked over a literary golden age, and much more. This is also the final episode on Augustus and the episode concludes with a quoted passage from Augustus' own writing, from his Res Gestae.

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