From Apollonia to Rome: An Eighteen-Year-Old Accepts His Inheritance

Caesar’s Heir: Apollonia, Brundisium, Rome (44 BC)

Transcript

Apollonia, across the Adriatic. An eighteen-year-old trains for the campaign against the Parthians. It is spring, forty-four BC.

News arrives from Rome. His uncle is dead, and he is the heir. For a moment he thinks of the legions stationed nearby.

He decides it is too rash. His mother and stepfather beg him not to take the inheritance.

He boards a ship and sails for Italy. He has no army, no money, only a name.

He enters Rome as Gaius Julius Caesar. And Caesar’s money is with Antony.