Consulship & Lex Pedia
43 BC
Consulship
Octavian sent an embassy of centurions to Rome to demand that he receive the consulship left vacant by Hirtius and Pansa. When this was turned down, Octavian marched on the city of Rome with eight legions and, encountering no military opposition, was elected consul with Quintus Pedius on the 19th of August, 43 BC.
However, in Res Gestae, Octavian tells the story slightly differently, he claims that "the people made me consul in the same year, when the consuls each perished in battle".
However, in Res Gestae, Octavian tells the story slightly differently, he claims that "the people made me consul in the same year, when the consuls each perished in battle".
Lex Pedia
Pedius, as a nephew or great-nephew of Julius Caesar, was also named as an heir to Caesar in his will and was to receive an eight of Caesar's legacy but he renounced this claim in favour of Octavian. He created the Lex Pedia which established the murder of Caesar, or the public call for the murder of Caesar, as a capital crime. Octavian passed this immediately and claims in Res Gestae that he "drove the men who slaughtered my father into exile with a legal order, punishing their crime".