[131] When the people desired to transfer from Lepidus to himself the office of pontifex maximus, which the law bestowed upon one person for life, he would not accept it, and when they prayed that Lepidus might be put to death as a public enemy he would not allow it. He sent sealed letters to all the armies, with instructions to open them all on a designated day and to execute the orders contained therein. These orders related to the slaves who had run away during the civil dissensions and joined the armies, for whom Pompeius had asked freedom, which the Senate and the treaty had granted. These were all arrested on the same day and brought to Rome, and Octavius returned them to their Roman or Italian masters, or to the heirs of the same. He also gave back those belonging to Sicilian masters. Those whom nobody claimed he caused to be put to death in the cities from which they had absconded.
The Civil Wars. Appian. Horace White. London. MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. 1899.
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