Hello, and welcome to the history of Rome, episode 51, Aptium.

After the partnership between Antnian Octavian broke down following the disillusion of the

second trim for it in 32bc, there was no longer room in the empire for both men.

Everyone had long suspected that war would break out between the two trimvers eventually,

now that war had arrived.

Once again, Romans were forced to choose sides in a civil war.

I honestly feel sorry for the exhausted generations of this final century of the Republic.

These men and women who were born just before Solas I march on Rome in 88bc, who grew up

in the vicious prescription regimes of the two feuding generals Sola and Marius, came

of age at the time of the Catalan conspiracy, and then grew into full adulthood with Julius

Caesar civil wars raging all around them.

As they moved into their 50s and 60s, ready to take on the role of elder statesmen or

presiding matrons, they were caught up in the trimverse wars against Brutus and Cassius

and then sexed as Pompey.

And now Octavian and Antnian were drawing yet another bloody line in the sand.

Every step of the way, these poor Solas had been forced to choose sides.

Choosing the right side usually meant little more than the opportunity to sacrifice something

valuable to the victor, be it land or treasure, while choosing the wrong side usually meant

exile and death.

What was true that many were staunch partisans of one side or another, most were just average

men and women trying to live their lives for whom these conflicts were never black and white.

On this side was their son, on that side their brother.

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