Arve, and welcome to Emperors of Rome, a Roman history podcast from Latrobe University.

I'm your host Matt Smith, and with me today is Dr. Rianne Evans, Associate Professor

in Classics and Ancient History at Latrobe University.

This is episode C-L-X-X-X-I-V, the Siege of Mutina.

As Antony heads north, he finds the city of Mutina, defended by Desimus Brutus.

Antony lays Siege, but he doesn't count on a young Octavian, leading the army to confront

him.

Here's Rianne Evans.

To set the scene, it is the end of 44 BCE.

Antony is consult until the end of the year, so times running out and he decides right,

I need a good base of operations to essentially fortify myself.

Caesar did good things up north and to the west towards Gaul, so maybe that's an option

for me.

Yeah, there's a concern for every console coming to the end, it's only a year, it's not a

great deal of time that they're in office, to know where they're going to be a provincial

governor, so a pro-console.

It's called pro-console, instead of consul, because they carry on having consular power

in that area.

Usually their term of office is for a year.

Caesar of course got five years in Gaul and significantly extended what Gaul meant,

and then he got it extended again, so Antony's asking not only for Gaul, but for five years,

and he's been given Macedonia in northern Greece, and he doesn't want it, it's too far away.

...