Numbers

The Second Triumvirate

• Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, "Octavian," later known as "Augustus," first emperor of Rome
• Marcus Aemilius Lepidus
• Marcus Antonius, "Mark Antony"

How It's Used

"After some complicated negotiations, Antony and Octavian, each claiming to be the true political heir to Caesar, combined their forces with those of a third Caesarian general, Lepidus, to form the Second Triumvirate. At Philippi in 42 B.C. they defeated armies that had been raised by Brutus and Cassius. After this victory they proceeded to divide control of the Roman world among themselves. Octavian was assigned the direction of affairs in Italy where pressing problems made the task unattractive. Veterans had to be settled on lands confiscated from all and sundry, and the bitter discontent of the Roman and Italian people has to be calmed. Antony took for himself the provinces of the east, and governed Gaul through a subordinate. He took up Caesar's plans for a great campaign against the Parthians, expecting, probably, to build up a personal prestige such as Caesar had acquired through his victories in Gaul, and so rise to unchallenged primacy in the Roman state. Lepidus lacked the capacity or personal prestige to compete on equal terms with Antony and Octavian. His power was gradually eclipsed, and he lived out his life occupying honorific offices which carried with them no important political power."

"The television set and video cassette player found in almost every Northern Virginia high school classroom add drama to history courses. Don Bierschbach, Pablo's world history teacher, shows the wide-ranging Cable News Network series 'Millennium.' At one point, the producers bow to teenage American tastes by electronically adding dripping blood to the severed head of a French aristocrat shown in a section on the 18th century.

"In Michels's class, an A&E Network biography of Augustus Caesar plays in the darkened classroom while students fill out a work sheet. Among the 11 questions they must answer are: 'What role did Cleopatra play in the civil war during the Second Triumvirate?' and 'What was Augustus' overall impact on the history of Rome?' Brian, wearing a tie because the basketball team is playing at another school, fills out the sheet before being excused early to catch the bus."

"But my own favourite among modern historical novelists is Waugh's friend Alfred Duggan. There are at least three Roman novels: Three's Company, the story of the Second Triumvirate from the point of view of Shakespeare's 'slight unmeritable man, meet to be sent on errands,' Lepidus; Family Favourites; and Winter Quarters. Those who don't know Duggan have a treat in store. He had a knack of coming on a subject from an unusual angle"

"Whoever described Dobbs as the thinking man's thriller writer got it just about right except for one thing: aren't thinking women allowed to be interested in historical thrillers? Ever since reading The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey's brilliant vindication of Richard III as prime suspect for the murder of the princes in the Tower, I certainly am. Fast-forward 460 years to Yalta, February 1945. The second world war is all but over, the Allies are making slow but steady progress on both eastern and western fronts, Hitler has retired to the Berlin bunker and the Allied war leaders, the three most powerful men in the world—Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, dubbed the holy trinity—have arrived at the Black Sea resort to discuss peace terms. Churchill thinks they are more like the second triumvirate of ancient Rome, Mark Antony, Octavian and Lepidus, who got together after Caesar's assassination to carve up the world. 'Just like us,' he says grimly to his daughter Sarah, one of the British delegation. 'And then they fell upon each other's throats.' If you read Winston's War, the prequel to this fictional account of Churchill's war years, you'll recognise the formula: real historical events embroidered and tweaked to make the dull bits interesting, real people interwoven with imaginary characters to make a good story."

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