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Caesar, who was the first to bear the title of Augustus, was only a youth when he made formal demand upon Antony for the million pounds 1 which [p. 231] had belonged to the first Caesar, who had been assassinated, and which Antony had transferred from Caesar's house to his own keeping; for Augustus wished to pay to the citizens of Rome the sum which had been left to them by Caesar, three pounds 2 to each man. But when Antony held fast to the money, and also suggested to Augustus that, if he had any sense, he had better forget about his demand, Augustus announced an auction of his ancestral property and sold it; and by paying the bequest he fostered popularity for himself and hatred for Antony on the part of the citizens. 3
1 Plutarch in his Life of Antony, chap. xv. (922 C), says 4000 talents, which would be the same as 24,000,000 drachmae (or denarii), a little less than the amount given here. Velleius Paterculus, ii. 60, says sestertium septiens miliens (= 700,000,000 sesterces), or about 6,000,000 pounds!
2 Suetonius, Divus Iulius, 83, says 300 sesterces, which is in agreement with the amount stated by Plutarch.
3 Cf.Plutarch's Life of Cicero, chap. xliii. (883 A); Life of Antony, chap. xvi. (922 D); Life of Brutus, chap. xxii. (994 B); Appian, The Civil Wars, iii. 28; Dio Cassius, xlv. 3-5; Velleius Paterculus, ii. 60.
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1931. 3.
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