should offer any violence. Yet at
this time he found no need of arms to oppose them. They really hated
one another bitterly, but because they had just about equal forces and
desired one another's assistance to take vengeance first on the rest of
their enemies, they entered upon a simulated agreement. [-55-] They came
together to confer, not alone but bringing an equal number of soldiers,
on a little island in the river that flows past Bononia, with the
understanding that no one else should be present on either side. First
they withdrew to a distance from the various followers and searched one
another carefully to make sure that no one had a dagger hidden under his
arm. Then they considered at leisure different points and in general made
a solemn compact for securing sovereignty and overthrowing enemies.
But to prevent its appearing that they were headed straight toward an
oligarchy and so envy and opposition arise on the part of the people at
large, the three were to be chosen in common as a kind of commissioners
and correctors for the administration and settlement of affairs. This
office was not to be perpetual, but for five years, under the general
proviso that they should manage all questions, whether they made any
communication about them to the people and the senate or not, and give
the offices and other honors to whomsoever they pleased. The private
arrangement, however, in order that they should not be thought to be
appropriating the entire sovereignty, was that both Libyas, Sardinia, and
Sicily should be given to Caesar, all of Spain and Gallia Narbonensis to
Lepidus, and the rest of Gaul south and north of the Alps to Antony to
rule. The former was called Gallia Togata, as I have said, because it
seemed to be more peaceful than the other divisions, and because the
dwellers there already employed Roman citizen-garb: the other was termed
Gallia Comata because the Gauls there mostly let their hair grow long,
and were in this way distinguished from the others. [-56-] So they made
these allotments, for the purpose of securing the strongest provinces
themselves and giving others the impression that they were not
striving for the whole. A further agreement was that they should cause
assassinations of their enemies, that Lepidus after being appointed
consul in Decimus's stead should keep guard over Rome and the remainder
of Italy, and that the others should make an expedition against Brutus
and Cassius. They also pledged