Good points, Theo. But another thing, just for interest - several books I've read recently (including Caesar's Legacy) dwell at some length on Brutus and Cassius' careers after the murder of Caesar. And talk about ignoring the Senate!?! (rule of law, what you will)

Basically, watching what the Senate did in the months after Caesar's death is almost funny, except it's not. They change direction so frequently, it's like watching a weathervane in a high wind. If I've got the many permutations correct, they confirmed - then took away - then gave a third set of responsibilities to the "Liberators" after the Ides of March. But basically both Brutus and Cassius simply took over provinces by force, and then rack-rented the east for money to such an extent that they were still screaming 3 years later (one of Cassius' fun demands was payment in all the provinces his armies bordered of TEN YEARS of taxes in advance). Any idea that Brutus was an idealist tends to disappear when you see him promising his armies pillage and plunder and basically taking monies due to Rome for the Liberators' personal use.

The other sideshow is watching the Senate v. Decimus Brutus. First they confirm him (murderer or not) as proconsul of nearer Gaul - then Antony tries to take it away - then Antony (a legally appointed consul) is, at Cicero's urging, made the enemy. The Senate sends out armies against Antony, once he's proconsul, not consul - then Octavian, who totally illegally raised three legions, is given praetorial imperium even though he's 19 and has never served in office - and on and on. He marches on Rome, not once, but twice, and the second time a supine Senate makes him Consul at age 20, with his legions quartered in Rome staring at them. And that's BEFORE the Triumvirate gets going. The destruction of any notion of law in the period 44-40 completed the destruction Theo was talking about, but you can go back through Rome's history 132-31 BC and track precedent after precedent where politicians and armies just ignored the law and thus set further precedents for further warlords.

It's got to be one of the most depressing centuries in the history of the world, surely. But again - what's amazing is that, having reached the nadir, Octavian then began building it back up again, which is NOT normal for warlords, I suspect.