Excerpt from The Death of Caesar by Barry Strauss, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Yet young Octavian had something special about him. He was Caesar's blood relative, but other qualities recommended Octavian to Caesar. Octavian's cousins Quintus Pedius and Lucius Pinarius were also descended from Caesar's sister Julia, but they did not inspire the same esteem. Young Octavian no doubt already showed signs of the intelligence, the ambition, the fingertip feel for politics, the strategic vision, and the ruthlessness—in short, the genius—that would eventually take him to the height of power.

THE FOUR HORSEMEN

The four men in the chariots entering Mediolanum were not united. Three of them wanted Caesar's favor but only one could be the favorite. Antony was about to become consul with Caesar's blessing. Decimus was about to become a praetor in Rome and had Caesar's nod for another important governorship next and then, two years later, the consulship. But Octavian would shortly get an equally high office and even better access to the sources of power.

How did Antony and Decimus react to the sudden rise of a young rival? We can only guess. Romans had little respect for youth and less for relatively low birth, so maybe they underestimated him. Yet experienced men like Antony and Decimus certainly noticed Octavian's place in Caesar's entourage. Octavian could be charming, but Decimus might well have recognized his chariot-mate's coldblooded ambition. Decimus claimed descent from the founder of the Republic, but the grandson of a local politician Velitrae was muscling him out in the eyes of the man who ran Rome. Jealousy might be too strong a term, but Decimus was a Roman, and honor mattered to him.

Cicero alleged that Antony was behind an assassination attempt on Caesar in 46 B.C. That sounds like a Roman orator's usual slander but an event in 45 B.C. is more plausible. According to Cicero, when Antony went to southern Gaul to meet Caesar that summer 45 B.C., he heard a colleague's cautious suggestion about assassinating the dictator. Antony was not interested, but neither did he report the danger to Caesar as a loyal friend would. Instead, Antony kept it to himself.

As the victory parade entered Mediolanum, the men projected unity but behind the veneer they were jostling for power. The dictator could not afford to ignore this but he did. For now, he had dozens of men to see, prominent Romans who had hurried northward to greet him. No one among them was more important or more paradoxical than Marcus Junius Brutus (not to be confused with Decimus Brutus). In a few short years Brutus had gone from Caesar's enemy to his friend and deputy. Always in the background was the figure that united them: Servilia, Brutus's mother and Caesar's former mistress.

Excerpted from The Death of Caesar by Barry Strauss. Copyright © 2015 by Barry Strauss. Excerpted by permission of Simon & Schuster. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.