Note 13 — Chapter I · CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH, B.C. 63-44

Octavius was sui iuris, his father being dead; his adoption therefore required the formal passing of a lex curiata. Now the opposition, supported by Antony, against this formality being carried out was one of the grounds of Octavian’s quarrel with him in B.C. 44-3, and the completion of it was one of the first things secured by Octavian on his entrance into Rome in August, B.C. 43 [Appian, b. c. iii. 94; Dio, 45, 5]. This seems conclusive against the theory that Iulius adopted him in his lifetime. Moreover all authorities speak of the adoption as made by Will. Livy, Ep. 116, testamento in nomen adoptatus est; Velleius, ii. 59, testamentum apertum est, quo C. Octavium nepotem sororis suæ Iuliæ adoptabat. See also Appian, b. c. iii. 11; Dio, 45, 3; Plutarch, Brut. 22. It is true that Nicolas—speaking of the triumph of B.C. 46—(§ 8) says υἱὸν ἤδη πεποιημἐνος. But if he means anything more than “regarding him as a son,” he twice afterwards contradicts himself: See § 17 ἀπήγγελλον τά τε ἄλλα καὶ ὡς ἐν ταῖς διαθήκαις ὡς υἱὸς εἴη Καίσαρι ἐγγεγραμμένος. Cf. § 13.