Second Triumvirate
The Second Triumvirate, unlike the First, was a formally constituted legal office: the 'triumvirate for constituting the republic' (tresviri rei publicae constituendae), voted by the Roman people in 43 BCE to give Octavian, Mark Antony, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus extraordinary powers for five years. Their first act was a systematic proscription — the posting of death lists for political enemies — that killed an estimated three hundred senators and two thousand equestrians, confiscating their property to fund the civil war against the Liberatores. Among the killed was Cicero, Rome's greatest orator, whose head and hands were displayed on the Rostra. The triumvirs defeated Brutus and Cassius at the two Battles of Philippi in October 42 BCE, ending organized Republican resistance. The partnership then divided the Roman world, but tensions between Octavian (holding the west) and Antony (ruling the east from Egypt beside Cleopatra) proved irreconcilable.
- Category: Political
