Kitap 3
3.23
The games were now approaching, which Gaius Antonius, the brother of Antony, was about to give in behalf of Brutus, the praetor, as he attended also to the other duties of the praetorship which devolved on him in the latter’s absence. Lavish expense was incurred in the preparations for them, in the hope that the people, gratified by the spectacle, would recall Brutus and Cassius. Octavius, on the other hand, intrigued against this scheme, distributing the money derived from the sale of his property among the head men of the tribes by turns, to be divided by them among the first comers. He went around to the places where his property was on sale and ordered the auctioneers to announce the lowest possible price for everything, both on account of the uncertainty and danger of the lawsuits still pending, and on account of his own zeal for the people,διὰ τὴν Καίσαρος σπουδήν: this may possibly mean on account of his own haste, i.e., his own need of money. all of which brought him both popularity and sympathy as one undeserving of such treatment. When, in addition to what he had received as Caesar’s heir, he offered for sale his own property derived from his father Octavius, and whatever he had from other sources, and all that belonged to his mother and to Philippus, and the shares of Pedius and Pinarius which he begged from them, in order to make the distribution to the people (because in consequence of the litigation Caesar’s property was not sufficient even for this purpose), then the people considered it no longer the gift of the elder Caesar, but of the younger one, and they commiserated him deeply and praised himὁ δῆμος . . . ἠλέει καὶ ἐπῄνουν. Combes-Dounous calls attention to this sentence as a case where a noun in the singular number governs a verb in the singular and another in the plural in the same sentence, as though we should say in English the people pities and praise him. both for what he endured and for what he aspired to be. It was evident that they would not long tolerate the wrong that Antony was doing him.
