[46] Lucius sent tribunes to receive the watchword for the army from Octavius. They took the army roll to him, as it is still customary for the tribune who asks for the watchword to deliver to the commander the daily register of the number of troops present. After they had received the watchword they still kept their outposts on duty, for Octavius himself ordered that each army should keep its own guard that night. The next morning Octavius offered sacrifice, and Lucius sent his soldiers to him bearing their arms, but prepared for marching. They saluted Octavius as imperator while still at some distance, and each legion took its separate position as Octavius had directed, the colonized veterans being apart from the new levies. When Octavius had finished the sacrifice he took his seat in front of the tribunal, crowned with laurel, the symbol of victory, and ordered them all to lay down their arms where they stood. When they had done so he ordered the veterans to draw nearer, intending to reproach them for their ingratitude and to strike terror into them. It was known beforehand what he was about to do, and his own army, either purposely (as soldiers are often advised beforehand), or moved by sympathy as for their own relatives, broke from the formation in which they had been placed, crowded around Lucius' men as they approached their former fellow-soldiers, embraced them, wept with them, and implored Octavius in their behalf, and ceased not crying out and embracing them, the new levies sharing in the outburst of feeling, so that it was impossible to distinguish or discriminate between them.
The Civil Wars. Appian. Horace White. London. MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. 1899.
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