[95] He caused a new law to be passed to repeal the one which declared Dolabella a public enemy, and also to punish the murder of Cæsar. Indictments were found forthwith, the friends of Cæsar bringing accusations against some for actual participation in the crime and against others as having guilty knowledge only. Several were indicted, and among them some who were not in the city when Cæsar was killed. One day was fixed by public proclamation for the trial of all, and judgment was taken against all by default while Octavius was overlooking the court. None of the judges voted for acquittal except one patrician, who then escaped with impunity, but was included with others in the proscription a little later. It appears that about this time Quintus Gallius, a city prætor and brother of Marcus Gallius, who was serving with Antony, asked Octavius for the command of Africa, and, being thus brought into his presence, attempted to take his life. His colleagues stripped him of his prætorship, the people tore his house down, and the Senate condemned him to death. Octavius ordered him to depart to his brother, and it is said that he took ship and was never seen again.1
1 Suetonius gives us two different accounts of this affair of Quintus Gallius. One of these says that " Gallius, while paying his respects to Octavius, had a pair of tablets hidden under his garments. Octavius suspected him of concealing a sword, but did not search him lest he should find that it was something else but caused him presently to be dragged away by centurions and soldiers, and subjected to torture like a slave; and as he confessed nothing, ordered him to be put to death after digging out his eyes with his own hands." The other account, which Suetonius says was written by Octavius himself, agrees substantially with that of Appian (Aug. 27).
The Civil Wars. Appian. Horace White. London. MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. 1899.
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