Apollo and Dionysus

-After the Battle of Phillipi, Marc Antony stayed in the East with eight legions.  Octavius, of course, went back to Rome.
-Around this time, Marc Antony also sent diplomats to Sextus Pompey in Sicily in hopes of securing some sort of a secret alliance.  He also told them to harass the Italian coast as much as possible in order to fuck with Octavian, and he also secured the support of the blockage.
-Meanwhile, Octavian decided that it was time to get married, so he divorced his first wife (Claudia Pulchra) in 40 BC and married Scribonia, an older chick and, more importantly, Sextus Pompey's aunt (by marriage).
   -Octavian was also perhaps hoping to get Sextus Pompey to join his side against Marc Antony, or at least maybe stay neutral.
-40 BC- the governor of Gaul died, and this was good for Octavian because he was one of Marc Antony's toadies.  In order to make sure Gaul would be run by someone more in line with Octavian, Octavian marched on Gaul with his legions to secure it to his side.  Of course, this pissed off Marc Antony, who traveled to Rome in order to confront Octavian.  There had been 11 legions stationed in Gaul, so the province was extremely relevant to his interests.
   -Marc Antony finally arrived with his legions in Brundisium, ready to kick Octavian's ass.
      -However, the troops were sick of fighting and war against fellow Romans, so both sides decided that they wouldn't fight.
         -Thus, the Treaty of Brundisium was established in 40 BC, reconfirming the the triumvirate and re-establishing their respective territories.   
            -It was decided that Marc Antony would oversee all of the empire east of the Adriatic Sea; Lepidus would oversee all of Africa; Octavian would over see all of the non-African land west of the Adriatic Sea.
            -The East was considered the better deal because it was more developed (compared to the West) and was next to the Parthian Empire, whom the Romans really wanted to conquer.       
            -The West was underdeveloped, crowded with barbarians, and its government had the boring task of land allocation for veterans from all of the previous wars.  It was also plagued with grain shortages, angry citizens, angry military veterans, etc.
-However, Sextus Pompey still remained in the game as the leader of a pirate fleet operating out of Sicily.  With his powerful navy he constantly blockaded Rome.
   -Marc Antony and Octavian were also broke during this time.  The wars had taken up so much of their resources!  So, how were they going to pay their armies?
      -Octavian faced a choice- either go back on the contract with his soldiers and their promise of land allotment, OR seize land that already belonged to citizens (like senators' estates or farms) which would severely piss off a lot of people.
         -Scores of homeless citizens (most likely former vets) began to migrate to Rome en masse and riot.  Soldiers began to riot too when they realized that there wasn't enough land to go around.
-Although he was broke, Marc Antony was living the dream in the East!  He had previously migrated from Greece to Asia Minor, but he quickly realized that Egypt had way more resources and would be a great ally in the conquest of Parthia.  However, the threat of the Parthians invading Roman lands was also present, and they actually invaded Syria and other neighboring regions in 40 BC but were repelled by Roman forces within the next couple of years.
   -During this time, Egypt was a client state of Rome ruled by Queen Cleopatra, who had styled herself as an avatar of the Egyptian goddess Isis.
      -Like Cleopatra, Marc Antony began to claim that he was a living avatar of the Roman god Bacchus (or Dionysus to the Greeks) and because of this he started partying nonstop!  It's also worth noting that Isis was sister to Osiris (whom the Romans had always associated with Bacchus).  So it was a match made in heaven with these two!
         -Cleopatra met Marc Antony in 41 BC in Tarius, Asia Minor.  She knew that Marc Antony was important because she needed to have a strong Roman ally that would secure her reign in Egypt.  They instantly fell in love and by the end of 41 BC Cleopatra was pregnant with twins!
            -Around this time Antony and Cleopatra had moved to Alexandria and were partying 24/7.
               -During one party, a bunch of Roman aristocrats (including Octavian himself) came dressed as Greek/Roman gods; Octavian came dressed as Apollo (interesting because of the philosophical concept of the Apollonian and Dionysian made popular by Friedrich Nietzsche).
               -It was during this time that Antony also began to participate in the strange rites of shadowy Eastern mystery cults.
-Back in Rome, Lucius Antony (brother of Marc Antony) and Fulvia (Marc Antony's wife) tried to start a rebellion in Italy against Octavian.  Antony, of course, claimed to know nothing.
   -Of course, it was easily squashed by Octavian, who sent Agrippa to crush the rebels.
      -Marc Antony's brother, Lucius Antony, killed himself, and Fulvia was exiled before dying in Greece.
         -Before she died, Fulvia met Marc Antony, who blamed her for making Octavian stronger by rebelling against him and losing, which ultimately made popular opinion of him (Octavian) stronger.
-Around this time, Marc Antony also sent diplomats to Sextus Pompey in Sicily in hopes of securing some sort of a secret alliance.  He also told them to harass the Italian coast as much as possible in order to fuck with Octavian, and he also secured the support of the blockage.
-Meanwhile, Octavian decided that it was time to get married, so he divorced his first wife (Claudia Pulchra) in 40 BC and married Scribonia, an older chick and, more importantly, Sextus Pompey's aunt (by marriage).
   -Octavian was also perhaps hoping to get Sextus Pompey to join his side against Marc Antony, or at least maybe stay neutral.
-After the Treaty of Brundisium was established, Sextus Pompey realized that he had been kind of ignored in all of this, so he just continued to fuck around and be a pirate leader, which was seriously fucking with Rome's grain supply at this point.
   -Finally, the triumvirate decided to do something, so they offered Sextus Pompey a job as governor of Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia if he would stop being a shit.  He'd also be consul of Rome the following year.
      -By bringing Sextus Pompey back, a lot of the loyal Republic liberator families (in addition to families that had been proscribed) were also welcome back home.
         -Among these people was the patrician Livia Drusilla, whom Octavian had fallen for. 
            -Octavian was into her, in fact, that he divorced Scribonia on the same day that she gave birth to their daughter (Julia (the Elder)).  He then married Livia three days after she gave birth to her second son, Drusus (the Elder)).  Livia's first son, Tiberius, would eventually be adopted by Octavian (and, of course, take Augustus' place as ruler of the empire after he died). 
         -Sextus Pompey realized, however, that he had made a terrible mistake- he had agreed to stop harassing the triumvirate, but in exchange for this he was given control over islands that he already controlled (haha) and was no longer the last defender of the Republic.
            -Octavian, estimating that this peace wouldn't last long, so he decided to straight-up break the treaty and strike at Sextus Pompey first!
               -He planned a two-pronged attack, one from the north and one from the east.  He was hoping to trap Sextus Pompey at Messana in the northeast. 
                  -However, it got kind of fucked up because the northern assault actually got defeated by Sextus Pompey's forces.  Also, Octavian was an inexperienced naval commander, and actually got his ass kicked by Sextus Pompey's super aggressive assaults.  In fact, Octavian almost died on one occasion (with most of his fleet being obliterated)!
                     -So, Octavian decided to try again, but this time he had to be more careful.  Agrippa (only 26 years old at the time!) was called upon to help him, and Octavian had him appointed consul when he returned to Rome in 37 BC. 
                        -They spent the entire year building a new fleet, and Agrippa also designed a new system of canals that linked an inland lake to the sea, and used this inland lake to train his naval troops for battle!
-37 BC- the triumvirate was legally over, but obviously they weren't going to give up power, so they met to establish how to continue.
   -They met and agreed to keep things as is, but Antony traded 120 ships for four legions with Octavian.  Antony upheld his end of the bargain and sent the ships, but Octavian never handed over the legions!  What a dick!
-Octavian's second assault on Sextus Pompey this time consisted of a 3-pronged attack, with Agrippa attacking the north coast and Lepidus attacking from the south with 10 legions!  Octavian himself would lead troops across the strait of Messina.
   -Agrippa was successful in his assault, and although there were rumors that Lepidus was considering forming an alliance with Sextus Pompey and backstabbing Octavian, it was still looking grim for ol' Sextus Pompey.
      -Agrippa's navy was evenly matched with Sextus Pompey's, but Agrippa's ships were better and stronger, so he won.
         -Sextus Pompey rallied his remaining ships and fled to Asia Minor, where he ran around trying to make new alliances. 
            -Unfortunately for him, he was eventually caught and executed in 35 BC.  Any hope of liberating the Republic at this point was finally over.
-Meanwhile, Lepidus believed that he had amassed enough power to challenge Octavian, and demanded control of Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia.
   -However, Lepidus wasn't popular enough with his own troops, and they ended up deserting him for Octavian!
      -Octavian used this as an excuse to kick Lepidus out of the triumvirate, so Lepidus then retired and lived the rest of his life chilling on an Italian state.