Summary

In Chapter 3, in Philippi, Northern Greece on the morning of October 23, 42 BC, Octavian, Caesar’s nephew, thinks himself immortal, though he is fighting a bad cold. The eve before battle, he sees two golden eagles which he reads as an omen, but he is uncertain whether the omen is meant for him or for the Liberators who killed Caesar. As the two armies face one another across a plain in a battle to avenge Caesar, Octavian’s ally Marc Antony oversees the preparations as he is stronger than Octavian who does not even command his own men but makes up for his lack of strength with cunning and audacity. Eager for revenge against his cowardice of three weeks earlier when he hid as his camp was plundered, Octavian decides that the omen is intended in his favor.

Two years after Caesar’s death, the...