Appian, a Greek historian from Alexandria, wrote The Civil Wars in the second century. This is Book 4. Rome was still a republic then, a city run by a senate and elected officials, not a king. In the last book, Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus formed a three-man commission to run the state, divided the provinces, and listed their enemies. Brutus and Cassius still held the east.

The lists go up: posted death warrants with a bounty on each name. Appian shows the bargains, slaves who sell a master, and Cicero caught in a litter and killed by a centurion he once defended. Heads are nailed up for cash. Confiscation pays for the next war. At Philippi, two battles on the same Macedonian plain, Cassius dies on a mistake and Brutus on his sword. The last army that still treated Caesar’s killing as a liberation is gone. After this the wars are among heirs.